


For Whom the Dead Heart Beats

by Ranku



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Awkward meeting, Death in the Family, Eventual Smut, F/F, minor OC's - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-15 03:25:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5769478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ranku/pseuds/Ranku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marceline returns to Ooo after forty years of traveling the world. The candy king has just died, and while on the way to the funeral, Marceline meets Princess bubblegum. Takes place ten years before the beginning of the show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started up on this fic a few years back. I figured I would post it on here as well as on FF.net. The first few chapters are a bit off since it's been so long since i first wrote them, but the story is still ongoing (slowly).

 

I stepped out of the make shift shelter on my ship to see the moon shining down on the ocean and the land approaching on the horizon. “I’m finally back,” I mutter to myself “just in time.” I float back into the shelter and start gathering my supplies. With how close I was to land, I should be able to get to the tree house by dawn; if not then I could always squat at a cave nearby until night time. The funeral isn’t until tomorrow night anyway.

My boat grinds to a halt against the cliff side as I step out to tie the boat up, “I need to remember where I put this for when I leave.” Once the boat is secured and my stuff is packed up, I float up the cliff side, being sure to leave my mark by the edge so I can know where to come back to. I look around my surroundings to find out where to go, the tall trees around me tell me that I’m a few hours away from the tree house. “No time to waste then, better start moving if I want to get there before the sun comes out.” I say to myself as I float onward.

As I move towards shelter, I can’t help but wonder about the circumstances of my return to the land of ooo. My vacation was going pretty well until I got wind through some of my ghost friends that the candy king was dying. Knowing the royal family decently well, I knew it would be best for me to go pay my respects. Besides, I had been gone for about forty years, I could use some catching up with the kingdoms, call it diplomacy if you will but I knew I had to come. Luckily the candy king expected me to return and wanted his funeral to be at night, three days after his death. Tomorrow was the big day. “I wonder how Queeny is taking this?” Queeny had always been an effective ruler, but it was obvious that she leaned heavily on her husband for almost everything, without him she would likely collapse under the emotional stresses of everything. Though they should have some heirs by now, so her kids will probably take that roll over.

My thoughts are broken by a warm feeling all over my skin, looking up I see that the sky is beginning to lighten up. Dawn is about an hour away. I look around and see a large open field with the tree house dotting the hilly horizon, not enough time to make it there before burning up and there is no shade in that field. If I get caught there when the sun comes up then I’m done for. Turning up north I head for the scattered mountains, there should be a cave or two there that I could duck into till dusk. I can see a cave just as the sun starts to poke over the horizon, the light slowly singing my skin a bit. I slip into the first cave I can find and look at my skin, pink burns splotch my skin from where the light broke through the trees, I watch as these burns quickly fade into my normal grey skin. “welp, nothing to do now but set up camp here till night time” I mumble to myself as I scope out the cave. There was a stream that ran through the cave and formed a nice little pond towards the cave mouth. Stalagmites grew up randomly throughout the cave, yet formed a nice little pocket towards the pond that was more than perfect for a camp site.

All in all, the cave was very homely, in fact with a little effort, it could be made livable. Granted that would require more effort than I would be willing or able to put forth at the moment, though I would like to keep track of this place for later. After taking out some basic supplies from my pack and grabbing a quick bite to eat from a few apples, I decided to leave a mark here as well. I floated over to a divot in the wall and picked up a rock as I carved the large M that declared my territory into the ground underneath it, I then replaced the rock to keep my mark preserved, should I ever need it again. “Whelp,” I yawned, “guess I should just rest up for tomorrow, need to get moving a little bit before dusk if I want to get to the funeral at a reasonable time.” I was going to need to stop by the tree house for a bit and drop off my stuff before heading down to the candy kingdom. It was going to be a full day.

* * *

I woke up extra early that day, after making sure my stuff was packed and getting into more regal wear (I am the vampire queen after all, might as well dress the part for an event like this), I watched the sunset at the mouth of the cave. Once the sun descended under the hills I decided to test it by pushing my arm out into the light, it stung a little bit, but there was no real damage showing up on my skin. I quickly grabbed by bags and floated out as fast as I could, wincing slightly at the pain of the dwindling light.

The second I got a good look at the tree house, I knew something was off. Mainly due to the candle lights inside the house, but I figured that I might as well be cool about this since I’m not going to be around for that long. I’ll just let them know that I’m going to be kicking them out for a while.

I was just about to knock on the door when a dog wearing a brown hat opened it. “I’m telling you Margret, this place will be perfect for the boys when they get older.” He said, looking back, as he stepped out. “Just need to put in some furniture and who in glob’s name are you?” he continued once he saw me.

“I’m Marceline the vampire queen, and I could ask the same question, followed by why are you in my house?”

“Sorry lady, this place was abandoned when we got here. Couldn’t get the scent of so much as a dead rat in here this morning. Also the names’s Joshua and before you threaten me, I’ll have you know that I’ve dealt with plenty of your kind before.” I floated past him and into the house, I couldn’t blame him for his mistake, the place did look completely empty, save for a few empty picture frames.

“Well, at least it doesn’t seem that you are making yourselves at home here. That means I don’t have to kick you out.”

“Like I said lady, this place was abandoned when we got here and we are going to be giving it to our kids later. Now if you don’t like that then you can lump off and leave us alone.” I lifted one of the empty picture frames to reveal my mark on the wall.

“M, for Marceline. Now that that’s out of the way, you can get out of my house, though you can have it in a while, I’m not going to be in ooo for too long, but I will come back for it at some point.”

“Who is that daddy?” came a voice from the ladder. I turned to see a small puppy standing at the base of the ladder followed by another dog wearing a flower cap this time and holding a… hold on a second, is that a _human?_

“Get the kids out of here Margret, I don’t want this vampire scaring Finn.”

“Actually hold that thought, Joshua was it?” he nodded, a bit confused. “Is she holding what I think she’s holding? Is that a human child?”

“Get away from him you monster!” he shouted, quickly darting between me and his wife. “I’m not letting you hurt him!”

“Whoa jeeze, I’m not going to do anything to him. I did used to be a human myself after all. I’m just surprised; it’s been so long since I’ve seen any humans that I thought there weren’t any in ooo anymore.” I pushed Joshua aside a bit and floated over to the baby, “what did you say his name was? Finn?” the baby cooed at me before lightly punching me in the face, which made me giggle slightly. “He’s the one you’re giving this place to?”

“I’m supposed to be living here too” said the pup, still cowering behind his mother, somehow shrunk to be slightly larger than her foot. Wow, what a weird family.

“Of course you are little guy, but until you are supposed to be living here on your own, scram. This is my house.” The boy and his mother quickly walked out the door with the baby. “Wait Joshua, before you leave I want to remind you that you can have them stay here when they are ready, like I said earlier I’m not going to be here long. Though when I come back I will want this place back from them, now go on and get out of here.”

“Alright I got it.” He replied with a doubting expression on his face as he hurried up to catch up with his wife and kids. I turned back into the house, set my bag down and pulled out a snack. Looking outside I realize that I took a bit longer with Joshua than I would have liked, so I decide to put off unpacking for now and head out through a window to the candy kingdom.

I can tell I’m almost there when I smell the sugar in the air and notice some of the trees turning pink and yellow. I can see the walls of the kingdom approaching when I hear something.

“Hey! Get back here!” some girl shouted, “science demands I find out if this works!” ok that’s kinda weird. I float over to the voice to see a young pink girl with long wavy hair going partway down her back and a beautiful blue dress chasing a candy squirrel around the trees while carrying what appeared to be a pair of candied wings and a flask of some red liquid.

“What’s going on here?” I ask her as I pop out from behind one of the trees. I must have scared her, because she jumps and drops her flask, spilling the contents all over the ground. She looks at the flask; then back to me several times with a shocked look on her face. “Ummm, did I interrupt something?” I ask.

  



	2. Chapter 2

“WHAT THE LUMP? You butt! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get that bonding agent and all this set up?” The pink girl screamed at me motioning to a table with several tools on it as well as the spilled flask.

“Whoa, calm down girl,” I said, pushing my hands in between us and backing away, “I don’t really know what is going on here or what just happened.” Her pink skin darkened to a light red as she looked at me exasperated stumbling for words.

“Calm down? You just ruined my experiment! I was going to create a new type of flying squirrel before you showed up and ruined everything! What are you doing here anyway?”

“Look I was just on my way to the candy kingdom when I heard you screaming at that thing so calm down. Besides, did you ever stop to think of the implications of your experiment and whether or not it was a good idea?” Her jaw dropped at this as her rage shifted more towards confusion, I had her. “Think about it, all it takes is one modified squirrel to start breeding and produce a super race and threaten the ecosystem. Their normal predators can’t get to them and they will live and reproduce without anything holding them back.”

“So? How much harm could a few squirrels do?” she retorted, clearly still in shock by me going into this subject, yet it seemed to be calming her down.

“Their population would rise exponentially with fewer predators and they would start to consume a lot, normal squirrels would have a hard time getting food and would die out. Ground based predators wouldn’t be able to hunt them so they would die out as well, and then there are the seeds that would be eaten by the rapidly growing population, so trees would stop growing as much.”

“Ok I get it, I didn’t think it through.” She threw up her hands in defeat, “How do you even know these things?”

“When you’ve been around as long as I have, you learn a lot of things, including how easy it is to throw everything out of whack. Whether that is people or an ecosystem, the principle is the same”.

“As long as you have been around? You’re what twenty?” she retorted, clearly not noticing the fact that I’m floating. It’s getting way too fun to mess with this girl.

“No, I’m over one thousand,” I stated while kicking my feet up in front of her to float as if I was in an invisible hammock and flashing my fangs, “in case you couldn’t tell, I’m a vampire.”

Her face went completely blank for a second until she processed what I just told her. “Wait, so vampires are real? I’ve never seen one before.” The look of shock I expected was missing, in its place stood a look of pure fascination. “You simply must tell me all about your kind!”

I looked up at the sky to check the time, “while I would love to stay and talk about myself, I have to get going before I’m late. Maybe I’ll see you later some time?” I said as I quickly floated away waiving. I hear her call out to me, but I ignore her, I really am running late.

It’s strange though, when I said that I would love to stay and talk with her, I actually meant it. I actually enjoyed talking to her. Maybe sometime after the funeral we could hang? No, that won’t happen, I don’t even know her name, much less if I would see her again. Though I have to admit, she was kind of cute. “Well, I’ll talk to her if I see her again.” I whisper to myself as I enter the candy gates.

* * *

 

I enter the candy castle through one of the windows; I’ve never been one for big entrances, so I snuck in to the throne room where the service was being held through the back. They are still setting up the room for the guests, “Good, I’m early.” I say as I look around the room, the casket was set up closed for the moment directly in front of the throne, flower arrangements were hung between the candy cane pillars with black ribbons and white bows that covered the red stripes of the pillars. The candy queen was overseeing a few servants who were setting up chairs. “Hey Queeny, you alright?” She jumped and turned to me.

“Oh, Marceline, you made it.” She sighed and hugged me, “It’s so good to see you, if only it was under better circumstances.” When she let me go I gave her a look over, her golden crown of power sat on her poofy gray hair, her face was starting to show its age, wrinkles appearing under her eyes and her cheeks were beginning to sag. “I will never get used to your looks, it’s been forty years and you haven’t aged a day, it’s unnerving, especially when I know my age is catching up to me.”

“It’s not as good as it seems Queeny; we’ve talked about that before. Now, I never actually heard, how did it happen?”

“Age and sickness mainly, but the final blow was a fall in the basement. He was going to check on one of our daughter’s experiments and ended up slipping down the stairs, if he hadn’t been so weak this month then he would have made it. He ended up in the hospital for a week until he died the other day.”

“Wow, so when is the service supposed to be?” I ask, hoping to get Queeny to stop thinking about how he died.

“We still have a few hours until it starts, and then we will put him in the royal crypt right outside the wall.” At that moment, peppermint butler came in and pulled on Queeny’s skirt.

“M’lady, the princess has just come in. She will be ready for the service shortly.” He said with a short little bow before turning to me. “Why hello Madam Abadeer, it’s good to see you again.”

“Ugh, peppermint, how many times do I have to tell you to not call me that? It makes me really uncomfortable.”

“Very well M’lady.”

“Don’t call me that either. I know I’m old but you don’t have to act like I am. Just call me Marceline”

“Alright Marceline,” he turned back to Queeny, “now the preparations are complete and the guests should be arriving any minute now M’lady”

“Good, I just want this day to be over with.” She sighed. I floated over to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder for comfort. She turned her head towards me and rested it on my shoulder in a display of weakness and longing that I had never seen before. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

 

I had missed most of the actual service. As soon as the princess arrived I couldn’t focus on any of the words being said. I couldn’t believe it when she walked in, wearing a long black dress with a black liquorice bow tying it around her waist. But most striking about her was her face. Her hair was tied into a ponytail, helping to convey the look of pure sadness she wore. All of this made her absolutely stunning, the only thing I could think about was how she made me want to comfort her, to wipe the frown off of her face, and no one makes me want to get that sappy. It definitely didn’t help that I already met her in the woods. I watch her intently as she sat down in front of me for the service, I saw her step up to the podium to give her speech, but I didn’t actually notice until half way through.

 _Oh glob, I need to get it together. She’s going to ask how her speech was and I won’t be able to remember any of it, I’m sure of it!_ I shake my head slightly to try to gather my thoughts. _Maybe I can steer the conversation away from that. I’ll just give a vague complement and leave it at that. Then I can try to apologize for the woods incident, wait why would I apologize for that? Ugh, I’ll just try to talk to her some more, she did say she wants to know about vampires. But what if she’s too emotional to deal with that right now? She’ll start going on about her dad’s death and how she blames herself, I’ll just silence her with a kiss and. Wait NO, she’s a princess and she’s in mourning, I can’t be thinking like that!_

Everyone stands and begins to leave, _ah gob it, I missed the rest of the service!_ I float out to follow everyone when someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around to see the princess standing just a few feet from me. “Hey, you’re that vampire from the woods aren’t you? You never did tell me your name.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m Marceline.” I float away from her, slowly, trying to put space between us while not offending her.

“Hmm, well once the funeral is over, I would still like to ask you some questions about vampires.” She smiled at me, somehow hiding the pain that was on her face just moments ago. “Though I would still like to know why you’re here. I take it you know my parents somehow?” she looked at me with inquisitive eyes, probing me for as much information as they could get, making me feel like I can’t refuse her.

“Yeah I know them; it’s been forty years since I’ve seen them though. I guess you could say I’m here for diplomacy.”

“So you’re royal? Or are you just a friend of royalty?”

“I’m the vampire queen.” She looks at me in shock at this, “Eh, it’s not that big of a deal. Vampire laws are pretty common sense and I’m not really needed for much unless things start to get out of whack. Other than that, vampires govern themselves. It’s kinda a ceremony thing.” Her eyes widen as I say this and we walk out of the city walls. We’re forced to quiet down as we approach the crypt. The building looks like any other crypt except for the fact that it, like everything else here, is made of candy. The rooms are dimly lit with torches that peppermint butler lights as we pass. We descend two floors before we come to a room with several coffins set into the walls and one wall that has yet to be filled. The coffin is set into the lowest slot, it slowly sinks into it as soon as it is set, it must be gum.

* * *

 

After the burial, I decide to attempt to get away from the candy kingdom. Mainly to get away from the princess who won’t stop following me around, barraging me with questions. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem answering them, she’s nice enough, the problem is that I can hardly think straight around her. I just don’t get it, just looking at her sets my mind ablaze. I get along with her, but I know I want more than that, what I don’t get is why and what to do about it. I’ve felt this way before, most recently with Ash, but never before with another royal, much less a princess.

“I’m going to have to go Queeny,” I wave, making sure that the princess can hear me, “I just got here and got my stuff together so I’m really tired.” I could see both of them start to voice complaints “Don’t worry, I will be back tomorrow. I just need to rest a bit.” I float out towards the exit of the candy castle.

“You promise you will be back?” the princess calls out to me, I hope the worry I hear is more than that of someone who’s test subject just left.

“Yes, I promise I will be back.” I wave her off. “Oh, before I go, what is your name by the way?”

“It’s Bonnibel Bubblegum.” She calls out, waving. I swear she blushes at the mention of her name. “I’ll see you tomorrow night Marceline.” I wave as I fly out of the kingdom and head towards the tree house. I need to figure out what I’m going to do with her. Whatever it is I hope Queeny doesn’t mind.


	3. Chapter 3

I arrived at the tree house about two hours before sunrise. I decided to use this opportunity to unpack my stuff while I figured out what I was going to do about Bonnibel. I knew I liked her, after being around for a thousand years I know how to tell when a serious crush was forming. I would have been fine if it hadn’t been for her dress and the way she talked to me at the funeral. But with how stunning she looked and the way she talked so freely to me while standing so close, I just couldn’t take my eyes off her or stop thinking about her. Thinking back on all of this just makes me even more flustered.

_Ok Marceline, clear your mind of all of that. Think, what are you going to do about this crush?_ I sigh; my thoughts aren’t clearing up any. This is going to be harder than I thought. _You’ve had crushes like this before, you’ve had plenty of boyfriends and even a few girlfriends in the past thousand years Marceline, don’t let her inquiring eyes intimidate you._ While I think this, I begin to open up my bags. First thing’s first, I put my food in the fridge upstairs. My clothes can stay where they are for now though. _Talking to her shouldn’t be a problem; she’s invited you over tomorrow. That and she’s already interested in you, in a way, so that’s a start. But how should I do this? I know Queeny likes me and everything but I don’t think she would quite approve of me sweeping her daughter off her feet; she’s got enough on her plate as it is._

_Actually,_ I think as it dawns on me, _that could actually work to my advantage. Her thoughts are going to be occupied so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I’ll just worry about how to explain everything to her once she starts to feel better._ I hate how it feels like I’m going behind Queeny’s back, but it’s the only way to not stress her out any more than she already is. I float back downstairs to my bags and grab my axe-bass. I start to strum out a few notes in an attempt to calm my nerves. It works as it always does; music always has had a way of soothing me.

Since we had the funeral today, there should be an event tomorrow, such as a banquet or a ball, maybe both, in an attempt to raise the people’s spirits. Personally, I find the practice a bit disrespectful, but the citizens of the candy kingdom are a bit special, they need to be kept in good spirits or else they just… stop working right. Their kingdom can’t really handle a mourning period.

I look out the window; the sky is just starting to lighten up slightly. Just a few more hours till sunrise. I pull the shutters and shades closed. If one good thing came from living here with Ash about fifty years ago, it’s that we managed to sun proof this place. I still wish I had smacked him around a bit for everything he did. Maybe I could do just that the next time I see him. The thought brings a smile to my face.

But now isn’t the time for those kind of thoughts. What I need to do is go ahead and go to bed so I can get to the candy kingdom before dusk and make it in time for the banquet. The candy kingdom always starts banquets before sunset for some reason that I will never understand. You would think that they would wait when the royal family has connections to vampires.

* * *

 

When I get up, there are a few hours remaining until sunset. I float down stairs to get ready. While I would normally settle for wearing jeans and a tank top, but I’m going to need to look impressive for the plans that I have today. So I pull out a long sleeveless red dress, one of the only outfits I have that are red that I haven’t tried to drink the color out of, and a low V-cut collar. As I pull this dress on, I get an idea. I grab my axe bass and sling it over my shoulder and quickly grab my daytime gear of my arm length gloves and umbrella before heading out the door. Unfortunately, my daytime gear doesn’t quite help my legs, so I wince slightly as they burn while I float on toward the candy castle, my feet occasionally slipping in and out of shade.

I arrive at the castle to see that people are still funneling into the main hall. Once I cross through the door I hear a voice above me shout, “Bwaa, bwaa, blaaaaa! Introducing the vampire queen Marceline!” I look up to see a horse shaped piñata hanging from the ceiling and looking at me.

“Uh, thanks.” I say to it

“You’re welcooome” it says while giving me a huge smile. If there is one thing that stays constant about the candy people, it’s that they are pretty much always friendly, regardless of whether or not they may seem a bit creepy.

“Marceline, you made it!” I turn away from the piñata to see Bonnibel walking towards me. She’s wearing a long blue dress that gets progressively darker as it reaches the ground. She wears a sash around her midsection that marks where her light pink hair ends. She watches me as I close my umbrella and then step out of the light, my skin sizzling for a second before I step into the shade of the building. “Doesn’t that hurt?” she asks while looking a bit worried.

“Of course it does” I say while looking for somewhere to put my umbrella and gloves, “it’s just that after being around for so long, I get a bit used to it.” I turn away and put my stuff in the umbrella bin in the corner. “Plus it reminds me of my mother and how she would take care of me when I got hurt.” I smile “Besides, I heal quickly anyway.”

She still looks slightly worried about me, but seems more understanding now before shaking it off. “Anyway, Marceline, please come in. We are just about to start the banquet once everyone gets settled in here.” As we walk, she spies my bass strapped onto my back with the strings facing away from her. “Um, should I take your axe for you?” she asks while giving me a strange look.

“Oh no this stays with me, and it’s not just an axe, it’s my bass guitar.” I explain as I swing it around and strum a few random notes. “I’m going to be putting on a performance later on tonight.” I look around the room and see Queeny sitting at the far end of the table, her expression almost completely blank. The look of someone who doesn’t quite know what face to show others, one who is too worried as to how others see her to let them know how she feels. “Gob knows Queeny needs a distraction from all of this.”

* * *

 

The banquet itself was uneventful; though I was surprised how much spaghetti Bonni was able to shovel down. The main problem I had is trying to find someone willing to eat what I sucked the color out of; it’s surprising how many of the candy people find this disgusting, but luckily pepbut was understanding so he would take my food away and bring it back to the table later for other people. I spent a lot of time explaining who I was to the candy people, since quite a few of them didn’t remember me. Queeny was doing a good job of directing the candy people’s attention away from recent events, but she wasn’t fooling me. She was way too stressed for my tastes.

Queeny stood up from the table for an announcement. “Alright everyone, finish up your meals and we will head down to the courtyard for the ball.” She said in a loud yet soft, motherly tone, “From what I understand, we have a surprise performance tonight.” She glanced over toward me as she said this. The candy people were sent into a buzz about this, trying to find out who it was, while the few that remembered me seemed to simply get giddy at the news. All of the candy people attempted to finish their food quickly, one of them, a cinnamon roll, just started shoving his food directly into his stomach once he saw a few people stand up to leave. I went ahead and excused myself; once I approached Bonni I place my hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

“I’ll talk to you after the first few songs” I whisper to her. She nods back to me as I float on out the building. The courtyard houses a large and beautiful garden, the entrance has a hedge-arch over it, a small fountain lies in the middle of the courtyard with small gardens in the corners. Directly across from the entrance at the far end of the courtyard is a large stage with a few lights above it, all of this surrounded by large hedges that form walls. Normally I would need some back up here, but due to the short time and the mood we are trying to set here, I decide to just do a few solo pieces. People are starting to flood in now so I float over near the stage to wait for the majority to get situated when I see Bonni walk in with Queeny.

Once I decide that I have waited long enough, and the people have started to get pumped with anticipation of the “mystery performer” I step up to the stage with my axe in tow. I grab the mic and call out for their attention. “Hey there candy kingdom, it’s been a while. I’m Marceline the vampire queen and I am going to be doing your opening performance tonight. So everyone get on the dance floor and get ready for some jams!” I start to float in a nonchalant manner before I begin to play. I start with a really chill song to get people in the mood, and I start to pick up the energy with each song, getting more and more into each piece. My performances have always had a profound effect on people, and now is now exception as I can see Queeny is on the floor and dancing with her people as if she hasn’t a care in the world by the third song. Bonni is following suit in a more awkward manner towards the edge of the crowd, I can tell that she isn’t one for dance parties, though I think I can see her keep glancing at me out of the corner of her eye, regardless of who she may be dancing with. I try to bring the energy down slightly after my fourth song before setting my feet back onto the stage to call out to the people again and sign off. I swing my bass to back before flying off the stage to the punch bowl where I grab myself a glass and watch some orchestra take my place on the stage as they push for more of the slow moving music that one would normally think of in a royal ball. As I sit down at a random table in the back to relax, I see Bonni come sit down next to me.

“You were great up there Marceline. You really livened up this place”

I nod “Yeah, I can tell. Even your mother is having a good time now. Regardless of how down she may have been feeling before.”

“So you caught that huh?” she says solemnly “she hasn’t quite been the same since dad had his accident.” she shakes her head as she looks at me. “But enough about that, I believe you promised me that you would answer some questions about being a vampire?”

“Ah, I did.” I chuckle “go ahead and ask what you want to know.” I figure it couldn’t hurt to satisfy her curiosity, how long could it take to answer a few questions?

* * *

 

About an hour and a half as it turns out. Sheesh this girl has a lot of questions and she is not afraid to ask some of the more uncomfortable ones either. She flippin asked me about how being undead affected my menstrual cycle, now that was embarrassing.

“Ok, I think I’m done with the questions for one night.” I say as I get up from my chair. “It’s almost midnight anyway so I think we should be moving somewhere else before people start heading home.” I offer her my hand to pick her up from her seat before leading her past the crowd and to the main gardens. “So since you spent all that time asking me questions, I feel that I’ve earned the right to ask a few myself.” I glance down at her slyly in an attempt to make her nervous. It seems that I succeeded, as she blushes slightly and nods to me. “Ok so first off, since I know that candy people age strangely, how old are you?”

“ _We_ age strangely? This coming from the one who’s immortal?” she shakes her head at me, “Well since you asked, I’m sixteen, though father said that I’m going to look around this age for quite a while to come.”

“Sixteen huh? A princess that old must have a guy in the picture right?”

“Actually, no. I’ve dated a little bit but I don’t have a boyfriend.” She looked up at me with a bit of fire in her eyes and said “Though just because I’m single, don’t be pulling the ‘old maid’ card on me. If I’m not going to be aging for a while then I should be able to put off anything permanent until I feel I am ready for it.”

“Don’t worry, I get it. You’re forgetting that I am immortal, a queen, and single as well. Believe me when I say, I know what you mean.” I look over her shoulder and see that they are beginning to disperse and the courtyard is being packed up by the servants. “Anyway, since we are going to have to head back to see off your guests, I have a proposal for you. How about tomorrow night me and you head out on the town? Just us girls?”

“Well I might have a few things to do tomorrow, but sure I’ll see if I can slip out.” She smiles as we turn out of the garden to meet up with Queeny. “What exactly would you have in mind anyway?” she asks.

“Well there should be a movie coming on tomorrow, unless it’s that couple’s night junk. But other than that I would rather keep it as a surprise.”

“hmph, I don’t like not knowing plans ahead of time.” She pouts “But fine, I’ll leave it to you then.” She says as we wave off the last few citizens. “Oh and this movie night is supposed to be some action flick called… I think that Joshua said it was something called _assignment improbable_ or something like that.”

“Ok good, as long as it’s not any of that sappy stuff then it should be good. Now don’t worry, I’ve got the rest handled.” I pat her shoulder and stifle a yawn. “Though today has been kinda tiring, I should probably be heading back to the tree house and get some sleep.” I float out as I hear a short protest from Bonni. “Don’t worry princess; I’ll pick you up tomorrow night!” I call out. I smile to myself at being able to set up this date, even if she doesn’t see it as one. I figure I should start planning for the rest of the date once I get to the tree house, but for now I’m just floating off feeling satisfied with myself. I start to notice that the night is getting really cold, making me wish I had worn a longer dress with a few more layers.

“Wait a minute,” I stop myself, “I’m dead, I shouldn’t be _feeling cold._ ” just as I say this I notice a small amount of snow drifting down. “Oh, no.” I whisper as I realize what’s going on, and the moment I do, I hear a scream come from the castle followed by a familiar voice.

“Oh come on princess, stop squirming and just come with me.” He says.


	4. Chapter 4

“Oh bread balls, Oh bread balls.” I mutter as I rush back to the castle as quickly as possible, aiming directly for the nearest window. “This can’t be happening, not now.” As I fly up to the window, I see the snow that has formed on the window sill from his entrance. I rush in and look around to find the Ice King floating up by the rafters of the great hall with Bonnie tied up under his arm attempting to fight him off.

“Oh come on princess, you know if you keep struggling like that, I’m going to have to freeze you solid, and that’s not ideal for either of us.” He chuckled to himself. “Quite honestly, I prefer my princesses to not be rock hard. But I guess I could make an exception if you force me to baby.”

Queeny is standing almost directly below them when she shouts before running out of the room, “Don’t worry Bonnibel; I’ll call Joshua to come and save you. You’ll be alright.” I can tell by looking at her that this has become a somewhat frequent occurrence since I left ooo. When she says this, I can see Bonnie relax a little bit before she turns around in the Ice King’s arms a bit and spots me.

“Marceline, get out of here!” she calls out to me, “he might come back for you as well!” He begins to fly back towards the main entrance with her in hand as I stand there gritting my teeth.

My hands tighten into fists and my entire body tenses. I can’t just let him take my future girlfriend away like this, even if they have plans for this kind of situation. Even if he may have been my best friend, I cannot allow this. I suck in a breath and call out as loud as possible.

“ **Simon!”** I yell, stunning everyone in the room,  **“Drop. Her. Now.”**

“What?” both Simon and Bonnie say in unison as he turns around to face me. I fly up to eye level with him, baring my fangs. “Marceline? Is that you?” he asks, completely dumbfounded.

“You two know each other?” Bonnie asks, surprised.

“Oh, does he know me.” I practically growl, “Now Simon, I thought I just told you to put her down?”

“Marceline! How many decades has it been?” he asks, completely ignoring my demands, “No seriously, how long has it been? I can’t remember.” He scratches his head for a bit as he tries to recall our last meeting before the thought passes from his face. “Oh, it doesn’t matter. It’s just nice that you’re back in time to meet my new fiancé. Say hi baby.” He directs that last part at Bonnie, a gesture that makes me tremble with rage. “I was just about to take her back to my place so she can get settled in for a while before we end up getting mar-”

I cut his statement off with a sharp slap. I grab onto his beard with one hand as I begin to shift. My limbs grow longer; my fingers grow into claws, and my forearms become misshapen as slight splotches of skin colored fur grow on my shoulders and elbows. My eyes turn red and my nose morphs into that of a bat’s. And finally my teeth and mouth begin to fuse forming a devilish grimace. My sudden increase in weight pulls him down to the ground as I stare him in the eyes and say very clearly, “She’s MINE, now let her go.”

He’s very shocked by my new form and he ends up dropping bonnie. She takes the opportunity to crawl away from us but gets to the wall and turns to watch. I grab him with my other clawed arm and say to him “You are going to leave her alone, or else you will be dealing with me, got that? I’m not going to be nearly as nice about this as they might. I don’t care how much of a friend you have been to me in the past, but NO ONE threatens my girl. Understand?”

He nods quickly and struggles to get out of my grasp, “yeah, yeah I get it. Just let me go already.” He cries out desperately. I let go and he falls backward before scrambling up to his feet again and running off. He flaps his beard to take off flying to the ice kingdom without looking back.

“Wow,” Bonnie says once she regains her composure, “you sure can be intimidating when you want to be.” I begin to shift back to my base form, suddenly beginning to worry about how much of what I said that she had picked up on. I didn’t mean to be so open with what I was saying, I just got caught up in the moment and I guess I got territorial.

“Yeah, well I couldn’t just let him fly off with you.” I say, forcing a chuckle as I untie her hands.

Once her hands are free she holds her hand up to signal me to stop and begins to work on her legs. “Though there’s something about what just happened that I have to know.” She says, her fingers flicking out the knots quickly.

_Oh dear gob please don’t_

“You called the Ice King ‘Simon’, do you know him?” as she says this she shoots me a somewhat suspicious glare.

_She must think that I knew he was going to try to capture her._

“Oh, that.” I chuckle nervously, heat building in my face, “yeah I know him. The both of us have been around for a  _long_  time. I knew him back before he got all messed up in the head. During the war.” I sigh. “He used to be a good man, you would have liked him back then, he was obsessed with science and ancient history.” I grit my teeth and turn from her. “But that darn crown messed everything up. It allowed him to survive the war, but it messed his head up bad. You can see how he is now, he doesn’t care about anyone anymore, he just wants to satisfy his obsession with 'his princess’ no matter who he hurts.”

“Unless it’s me.” I mutter, not caring if she hears or not. “He only acts like himself again if  _I'm_ the one who gets hurt.”

“So, he was a dear friend to you.” She says “I see.”

“No, not a friend, more like a father.” I interject. “He raised me and protected me through all the craziness that was going on at the time.” I say, tears welling up in my eyes. “He protected me and all I could do was watch him slowly go insane.”

Bonnie rests a hand on my shoulder “I’m sorry Marceline. I shouldn’t have accused you.” She says softly. “I didn’t know what he meant to you. It must have taken a lot to stand up to him like that.”

I turn to face her. “Thank you, princess.” I say as I wrap one hand around the one on my shoulder, cherishing her body heat.

“I guess it also shows that you really wanted to see that movie with me.” She jokes, pulling her hand away. “After all you stood up to him for _me_ , I must say I’m flattered.”

My face turns red as she laughs at me. The sound of her voice echoes through the hall, growing louder as she sees my reaction to her teasing. I turn and hiss at her, flicking my forked tongue at her, and she laughs even harder. She falls back a bit, catching herself with one hand and I start to chuckle too. Next thing I know we are both laughing almost hysterically when Queeny comes back into the main hall and sees us both lying on the floor laughing.

“What just happened?” she asks, “Did the Ice King leave?”

Bonnie stifles her laughter for a bit and breaths a few times to calm herself. “Yes mother,” she says, gesturing at me “Marceline here rescued me from him before we even left the room.”

I stand up and walk to her “Don’t worry Queeny; I managed to scare him off. If I’m right, then he shouldn’t be bothering you guys for a while.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” She sighs “The Ice King has become such a nuisance lately. He has taken a special interest in Bonnibel ever since she turned fifteen.” She walks towards the door to the main corridor as we follow her “His attempts have been getting so frequent that I was beginning to worry that I would need to place banana guards around her 24/7. At my age, I can’t be worrying about my daughter’s safety like that. So thank you for handling him, if only for now.” She finishes as we reach the spiraling stairs that head up to her room.

“I told you that you don’t have to worry about me like that mother.” Bonnie says with a concerned look on her face.

“Oh but I do Bonnibel. Like it or not, you are the future of this kingdom. If anything were to happen to you, the kingdom would fall into complete disarray.”

“That’s why I’ve been working on a way to create a successor.” She says quickly. “So we have some form of backup in case that was to happen.”

“Bonnibel,” she turns at the top of the stairs “that simply won’t do. You know the law as well as I do. Even if you were to create a successor, it would not be a legitimate heir. Your successor wouldn’t have as much power in dealings with other kingdoms as an heir grown to the Bubblegum family.” She sighs. “Besides, the people  _like_ you Bonnibel. They would much prefer to live under your rule than one who was created by your hand.”

“I’m going to have to side with Queeny on this one.” I interject. “Think of it this way, most other kingdoms don’t trust those who are created through alchemy with any form of power. They believe that they are too easily swayed or they are mentally unstable. Plus they are viewed as a form of child, since they’re created for the job and made in their prime. It may be different in the candy kingdom, but the other kingdoms would never accept a created ruler.”

“Exactly,” says Queeny, “Don’t put all your hopes into your creations Bonnibel, and please, do be careful.” As she says this she enters her bedroom and shuts the door behind her. Bonnie looks at me, looking somewhat peeved.

“You think that people wouldn’t like a created ruler? I’ll have you know that I’m on my way to making one who would be  _perfect_ for the candy kingdom.”

“Chill princess. I’m just saying that the other kingdoms would never accept them.” I defend myself, throwing my hands back.

“You  _think_ they would never accept them you mean.” She says as she stomps off and heads towards her room.

_Sheesh, who would have thought she would be so defensive over her experiments?_  I think to myself. I figure now is as good of a time as any to head back to the tree house, so I float back down the stairs and head for the great hall.

As I cross the corridor I begin to feel like something’s wrong. I float into the doorway of the corridor and quickly find out why when my skin starts to smoke. The sun has already risen and the great hall is completely bathed in light. Not only that, but my daytime gear is by the front entrance of the great hall along with my bass. It seems that I am stuck here for now.

I float back up to where Bonnie’s room is and knock on the door a few times.

“What is it?” she calls out.

“Umm, princess, I’m going to be stuck here till the sun goes back down. I was wondering if you could let me stay in your room for the day?”

She opens the door to let me in. “Sure” she says, still looking somewhat mad at me yet notably less so, “but you’re still going to have to change when we go out tonight.” She states bluntly. “ and don’t even think about taking any of  _my_ clothes.”


	5. Chapter 5

“I know you had a late night last night, what with the ball and the incident with the Ice King. But it’s three in the afternoon princess. No wonder you are still in bed, why is it so dark in here?”

“No, Pep, don’t!”

This is the first thing I hear when I am suddenly awoken to a searing pain and the smell of burnt flesh. Instinct takes over as I launch into the air and out of the light. Pepbut yelps in surprise as I latch onto the ceiling and hiss at him. He looks at me in shocked for a second, the curtains still in his hands before he gives me a wary look and says, “Attempting to grab a midday snack I see.”

“Don’t be ridiculous Peppermint” she shouts, “She’s staying here until she can get back to her house when the sun goes down.” _Wait is she blushing?_ The thought passes through my head quickly before peppermint butler lets go of the curtains and closes them just enough for me to be able to lower myself to the floor.

He watches me before saying, “I find that a bit hard to believe. Marceline if you were having problems with the sun you could have just asked me or any of the other servants here for assistance in gathering your sun gear.”

Bonnie turns and looks at me as if she just now put thought into this. I stammer “Look I was tired after last night alright? I wasn’t going to hunt you down so I could wait for you to get my stuff.” Bonnie chuckles at my obvious embarrassment. “Oh shut it.” I shout.

“Face it Marceline, you didn’t think through your options last night.” She turns back to peppermint and says “could you please gather Marceline’s effects for her? You do have to get ready for tonight after all, and like I said you are _not_ using my clothes today.” She directs that last portion at me.

“Very well M’lady” the servant bows and exits the room, shooting me a piercing look as he passes me. I can’t tell if he’s doubtful of my control as a vampire or if there is some other reason he doesn’t seem to trust me, but what I do know is that this isn’t going to be the end of it.

“It’s too bad about the clothes thing.” I mutter as an aside, instantly regretting it, “Oh and by the way princess, don’t you have things to do today too? Why are you only just getting up if it’s around three?”

“Mother handles most of the Kingdom’s workings these days.” She says as she heads to her closet to pick out a dress, “I typically only assist with the political system when it comes to interactions with the other kingdoms. You’ll find that I am quite the skilled diplomat; even the flame king respects my actions if I come to his kingdom. And they’re a kingdom full of liars and usurpers.” She grabs a high collar dress, pink of course, with broad shoulder pads and heads behind the shader to change.

“Also what was that you said about my clothes?”

_Crap_. “Uh nothing.” I can feel my cheeks beginning to warm up, thank goodness she can’t see me right now, “I was just thinking that I would look good in pink” I try to force a laugh and hope it doesn’t sound too nervous.

Bonnie pops her head out from behind the shader to shoot me a questioning look as I lay back and stare at the ceiling in an attempt to appear nonchalant. “With your grey skin? There is no way that you could pull that off. How can you be as old as you are and not know when something isn’t your color?”

“It’s not a thing of not knowing, It’s more that my age makes me more willing to… experiment, I guess you could say.”

A knock sounded at the door. “Princess, are you decent?” Peppermint Butler calls out.

“Just about, you can come in.” she calls back. The door opens and pepbut enters carrying my gloves, an umbrella lined with bones along its frame and my axe laid out across his arms. How a tiny man like him is able to do this in one trip I will never know. “Your equipment Madam Abadeer” he says as he sets it all down on the bed.

“You’re just calling me that to annoy me aren’t you?” I sigh when he responds by shooting a sly smile in my direction. “You suck, you know that peps?” I say as I slide on the gloves and strap the axe around my shoulder.

The princess steps out from behind the shader, still adjusting the ties on the back of her dress. “Ah, you’re about to leave I take it?” she says, “Well, I will see you this evening then.” She says this somewhat distractedly as she steps over to the mirror and begins to work on her hair. I hear her mutter to herself while she works on molding her hair into a neat shape, “I hate how mother focuses so much on appearances in the castle, if it was up to me I’d make a point to just look comfortable when in here.”

I chuckle at her and grab my umbrella calling out “I’ll see you tonight princess.” And head out the door. Peppermint follows me through the grand hall before grabbing my arm when I’m about to open my umbrella.

“Listen, there’s something I need to say to you Marceline.” I turn to him, my attention grabbed by the sudden uncharacteristic informality.

“What is it peps?”

“It’s about the princess.” he says somewhat nervously, “She’s brilliant and incredibly kind, but she can be a tad thick on certain subjects.”

“Umm… Where are you going with this?” I ask.

“I’m just saying Marceline, I’ve known your family for quite some time now, and I know how you can get when someone ‘just doesn’t get it’” he stresses the last bit with air quotes. “So please, just be patient with her, and it might be a good idea to not beat around the bush when you try to let her know your intentions.”

I drop my feet to the ground and stare at him “Wait, you’ve already figured it out? Since when?”

“I saw the way you reacted when I teased you about staying the night with the princess. And don’t worry, it’s not that I don’t approve, it’s just that… I care for the both of you, and I don’t want to see either of you get hurt. So I’ll say it again, just be patient with her, she’ll come around to you eventually.” He pats my arm and begins to walk away before turning and saying “Oh, and don’t worry, I won’t say anything to the queen about this. In fact it would probably be best if the princess was the one who told her about the two of you. She might take exception to one of her oldest friends attempting to date her daughter. You of all people should know how awkward that can be, so you might want to be careful about that.”

I was speechless, was I really that obvious? I shake my head _it’s not that it really matters anyway. The only person that could potentially be a problem is Queeny, and she shouldn’t be that much of an issue so long as she's given time to get used to it._ I open my umbrella and kick off through the light filled hall, determined to get home as soon as possible.

  


When I get into the tree house I close my umbrella and strip off my gloves, hoping to kick back and relax a bit for the few hours I have until my date with bonnie. My relaxation is cut short, however, when I realize that my arms have begun bubbling. “Ah, crap!” I mutter, darting upwards away from the light, “why in dad’s name did I leave a window open?” I say when I spot the wide open window on the wall across from the front door, the dark grey curtains catching a stray breeze. I quickly fly over to shut it and pull down the sun shade, cursing myself for forgetting to do this earlier.

“Okay, let’s just hope I don’t keep this airheadedness up.” Floating up the ladder, I head for the bedroom and riffle through my bag, looking for something else to wear for tonight. “Hmm, let’s go for something new, I’m sick of dresses already.” I say to myself while rummaging through my collection of clothing. “Ah, here we go!” I pull out a pair of black slacks and a white button up shirt. Quickly changing out of my current dress, I switch out to the clothes I just grabbed as well as a red vest with matching leather dress shoes. Checking the mirror I think _I should get a tie with this… no, you know what, forget ties, I don’t even_ _ **have**_ _a tie here. Though I do need something else._ I look around for anything that sticks out to me, digging wildly through what is now a massive pile of clothing on the floor. Then I spot a black jacket with twin coattails. _Yes,_ I think while inspecting myself in the mirror, _bonnie will love this, if she hasn’t already, she’ll definitely be questioning her sexuality._ As I continue to model the outfit in the mirror, chuckling to myself when I remember that many people still think I can’t see my own reflection, I feel the doubts begin to sink in.

_What if she doesn’t? What if I’m too dressed up? Come to think of it, I never did ask her what she was going to be wearing to the movie._ I shake my head to clear my mind, _ah who cares? It’s not like I planned to start dating a princess, it just happened. If I hadn’t fallen for her then I would still be planning to leave Ooo in a few weeks._ I turn back to the mirror, giving myself more scrutiny rather than the outfit. _Maybe I can just alter my appearance a little bit, just to give myself an edge._ I shift and shorten my hair a few inches so I can tie it into a small ponytail. Next for the slightly weird part. I turn to the side and my breasts grow slightly, not enough to draw too much attention, but hopefully enough to catch her eye.

Checking the time, I realize that it’s almost nightfall, meaning that there’s not much time until I have to get ready to meet Bonnibel. I head for the fridge and try to relax with some strawberries before I go to meet her. _She doesn’t even know that I’m thinking of this as a date, and yet I’m already freaking out, sheesh._

 

I soar through the night sky, completely undetected as I approach the castle. One of the upper hall windows is open, so I decide to meet her directly at her room. Sailing in the window, I go to knock on the princess’s door. “Hey princess bubblegum, are you ready?”

“Yeah Marceline, just give me one second.” She calls from the other side. The door opens to reveal Bonnibel in a long pink, of course, dress that flows straight down with a light pink ribbon with gold trim tied around her waist almost like a present from the old winter holidays that Simon told me about. Her hair tied up into a bun towards the top of her head, I could swear that it seems like she actually has less hair on her head. She stops and blinks at me, looking me up and down with a slightly shocked expression. “Wow Marceline, you’re certainly looking… dapper.”

“Thanks princess, you’re not looking too bad yourself.” I say, nodding at her, “So, you ready for a night out on the town?” I ask, holding an arm out for her to tuck hers into.

“Yeah, but what are you pla- whoa jeeze!” her train of thought is cut suddenly when she takes my arm and I suddenly kick off, sailing out the window with her in tow. “A little warning next time?” she yells into my shoulder when she catches her breath, clutching for dear life onto my body.

I laugh at her, “No promises, now are you going to keep being a scaredy-cat and keep your face buried in my arm or are you going to get on my back and enjoy the free ride?” she picks her head up to glare at me “haha, yeah that’s it princess, now go ahead and sit on my back. Don’t worry I’m not going to be pulling any aerial stunts or anything like that.” I add, rolling my eyes, in response to her continued glaring, “I’m pretty sure your mother wouldn’t like me giving you back seriously injured.”

“I’m perfectly comfortable where I am thank you very much.” She grumbles, “Now let’s just go to the movie already.” She continues, burying her head into my shoulder again and waiving dismissively with a single hand on my shoulder blade. I take a deep breath, trying to push the thought of how close her body is to my own out of my head before I begin our flight to the theater out in the woods.

“hehe” I smile as we exit the candy kingdom, “you’re going to love what I have in store for you tonight princess, you can trust me on that.”


	6. Chapter 6

  


So focused am I on the pink princess that has her limbs wrapped around my body that I almost don't notice when we get to the drive in movie theater. I lower us to the ground near the drive in so that Bonnie can step off of me.

She continues to cling to me.

I clear my throat.

Still she clings, not even looking away from my shoulder. “What is it Marceline?” she asks softly and obviously shaken.

“Umm, we're here princess.” she suddenly looks up from my shoulder and spots the trees above and around us. “We've been here for almost a few minutes now. You would know that if you weren't cowering in my shoulder.” I remark.

“Oh! Right.” she steps off of me, wobbling a bit to gain her balance, “Sorry, I'm not used to flying around like that. It's a bit.... disconcerting.”

“You're going to have to get used to that if you're going to keep hanging around me sugar lips.”

“Still have a sense of humor at your age I see?”

“Oh, now that’s just cold princess.”

“Just like your skin?”

I crack a smile “ooh, catty.” She responds with a sly smile and a chuckle, “Now, enough of that princess. Let’s go.” I take her by the hand and lead her through the trees that serve as the entrance to the drive in. Our selection of seats is limited to a few ruined cars with their tops ripped off. I think this place used to be a section of an old truck stop back before the war. She separates herself from me to lead me to the remains of a red sedan and motions to the seat

“After you Marceline.” I smile and float up and come down to rest in the passenger seat. She climbs in after me just in time for the paper screen to light up and begin displaying something about where to buy popcorn. I stretch out my arms over the chairs and kick up my legs onto what was once the car’s dashboard. My eyes glance to the side to look at Bonnie who lays her head back, not seeming to mind that my hand is already on her headrest. “I have to say, you are the most improper royal I have ever met Marceline.”

“It comes with my age. Well that and the whole, me being half demon thing. No one really would expect me to act all stiff and proper in the first place.” I turn and ask her with a raised eyebrow, “Unless you _want_ me to start acting that way?”

“No, I don’t. It would just be weird now that I’ve started to get to know you. Now hush, the movie is starting.” I smirk and turn to the screen. I can tell this is going to be a good night already.

* * *

 

As we walk out of the theater area, I ask her “So, what did you think?”

She sighs, “It was good I guess, but they made up so much when it comes to the technology that it bugged me. That type of bomb they were trying to stop can’t be disarmed mid-flight! And some of the spy equipment they were using defies the laws of physics!” she throws her hands into the air exasperated.

“Well you have to remember princess, they don’t plan on most people that would watch the movie to have done their homework on this. It’s meant to entertain people, not to be scientifically accurate.”

“It’s still an insult to scientists everywhere.”

I laugh at her, and without thinking, I say, “You’re so cute when you are nerd raging like this.” I freeze, _Oh crap, too soon._ I think immediately after.

Luckily, she doesn’t seem to think too much of it as she says “It’s not _cute_ , I’m being completely serious here!”

“I’m sure you are, but it’s just the way that you get all worked up over something so insignificant. It’s adorable.” I laugh as she scoffs at me and turns away in a huff. “Anyway, you ready PB?” I ask, holding my arm out for her to take a hold of once again. “It’s dinner time.” She loops her arm through mine and I kick off once again, this time ascending slowly so as to not scare her like I did earlier. She reaches around my chest to grip my shoulder with her other hand, this time however, she does not bury her face in fear, instead she looks around as we pass the top of the tree line.

“Wow, this is how you get around on a day to day basis? It’s beautiful up here.” Her words filled with awe. She squeezes me tighter when I level out and start moving away from the ruined truck stop turned theater.

“Every day Bonnibel, every day.” She shifts, relaxing her grip slightly yet pulling me closer. I glance at her and see a contented smile spread across her cheeks. _Oh glob, I love that look._

We fly in silence for a few minutes, Bonnibel is just taking in the sights as we fly over a field before we come to a two-tiered restaurant named “the pasta planet”. After landing, we are greeted by a strange man who would look almost human if it wasn’t for his light green skin, almost blue hair, and his wholly black eyes. “Good evening ladies,” he says with a flourishing bow, “will it just be the two of you this evening?” at my nod he continues “Good, now if you will follow me please.” He directs us through the building, winding through several isles of white cloth covered tables all lit with overhead lamps and faux candles, before bringing us to a single booth and motioning to it. “Now, is there anything I can get you ladies?”

“Actually,” I raise my hand, “I was going to ask for one of your private booths upstairs.” Bonnie, clearly not expecting a change in seating, looks up at me in surprise from her half seated position.

“I’m sorry miss, but those are for VIP’s only.” The host frowns, “perhaps I could get you a table in a less crowded section of the restaurant?”

“No, we would like the VIP room.” I say again, pointing at the stairs in the corner. “After all, the two of us _are_ royalty.” I add, giving him a fanged smile.

“I-I’m sorry?” the man stammers, visibly taken aback.

Bonnibel then stands up and flips a coin at him, which he barely manages to catch. She says nothing as he looks down and then back at us, clearly still confused, instead, she merely points at the coin. He looks at the coin, it is a golden fifty-cent piece from the candy kingdom, on its face is the line “science is A-OK” arching over a portrait of Bonnibel herself giving a thumbs up. The man does a double take between the coin and Bonnie before speaking again. “OH, my apologies for not recognizing you earlier your majesty. If you will follow me to your seat.” He says with a bow. The host then turns on his heel and leads us to the back of the restaurant where the stairs are held behind a velvet rope.

We ascend to the door at the top of the stairs redundantly labeled “VIP’s only” behind which there is a hallway with several sections hidden behind long purple curtains, all of which are dimly illuminated from behind with soft candle light. The host pulls back one of the curtains to reveal a rounded booth with a black leather seat and a large candle lit chandelier hanging from above, magically enchanted to prevent the wax from dripping onto the blue tablecloth covered table. “Now, your majesties, I shall send up someone to assist you shortly. In the meantime, might I get you something to drink?”

We soon are set up with our drinks, a red wine for me and an exceptionally sugary soda for the princess, and have already sent the waiter out for our food when Bonnibel asks me, “So from the host’s surprise earlier, I take it you never made reservations here?”

“Well of course I didn’t, if you remember, I was with you for most of the past few days. I kinda had to wing it for my plans tonight.”

“Fair enough.” The princess raises a single hand, “But, I take it you’ve been here before?”

“Bonnibel,” I sigh, “you’re forgetting that I’m a thousand years old and also royalty, of course I’ve been here before.”

“That’s the second time.” She says so softly that I almost don’t hear her.

“Hmm? The second what?” I ask, cocking my head.

“That’s the second time you’ve called me by my name.” she clarifies.

“Oh,” my mind suddenly blanks, “Uh, well, that _is_ your name, it’s only proper to call you by it.” I say quickly, absently reaching for my wine and actually drinking it before draining the color from it. I can feel my pale gray cheeks brightening slightly.

“I thought we established that it’s weird for you to try to act proper earlier?”

I cough slightly, “Well I thought I would try anyway. Is there a problem with that?” I assert, staring intently at my wineglass.

“No, it’s weird but… I like it.” A tender smile overtook her as she turned to look at me and I secretly wished that the food would hurry up and get here. Suddenly, her smile fades and is replaced by a look of concern. “Marceline, are you alright? You don’t look too fresh.” _Oh crap she noticed_.

“Uh, yeah I’m fine.” I attempt to reassure her, staring so intently at the curtain, praying for a distraction that I was slightly afraid I would burn the curtain with my eyes. “I’m just as fresh as I’ll always be.”

“Are you sure? You look like your internal temperature has risen significantly in your buccal region.” _And she’s gone into science mode, great._

“My what?” I ask.

“Buccal, your cheeks.” She sighs at my continued confusion, “your face looks flush Marceline. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine, now stop looking at me like I’m a scientific mystery. It’s embarrassing.”

“The Vampire Queen, embarrassed?” she snickers, “Well this is an interesting development. Besides Marceline, you _are_ a scientific mystery.”

“Is that why you agreed to come here with me? Or is it something else?” I retort, attempting to turn my embarrassment back on her.

She appears visibly shocked at my statement. “Of course that’s not why I agreed to come here with you! I’m can’t believe you would even suggest such a thing!”

I’m about to reply when her expression changes, she looks up for a second before turning her face back down to meet mine with a somewhat saddened expression. “I’m sorry, I can’t help trying to break everything down scientifically. I don’t mean to treat you like a puzzle like that. It’s just that you are so interesting that I can’t help it. It’s not just because you’re a scientific marvel, considering that you’re an almost one thousand year old vampire, but also because there’s so much experience hidden inside you. You have such a large history and you’ve met so many different people.” She sighs and crosses her arms on the table, “I just want to know about you, to learn from you” she averts her eyes to the corner of the table and I think that I see her dark pink cheeks brighten just a bit, “and just maybe I could…” she trails off right as the curtain is pulled to the side revealing the green man with the jet black eyes carrying two trays on his right arm.

“Pardon my intrusion your majesties,” he says with a posh voice, “But dinner is served.” He hands us our plates, a steak platter slightly seared yet still raw for me, and as usual, a spaghetti dinner for Bonnibel with extra parmesan cheese. “Now if there is anything I can get for either of you, feel free to pull the cord right beside your curtain.” He bowed once again before heading back out.

“It’s obvious they don’t get many royals here.” Bonnibel points out, “He was sweating nervously pretty fierce.”

“I’m surprised you noticed that.” I mutter “but what was it you were saying right before he came in?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she waves her hand dismissively, “just like I said, don’t be thinking that I only am interested in you scientifically, you’re pretty interesting in all accounts. Especially since you’re one of my mother’s oldest friends.” She ends her statement by taking a huge bite of her spaghetti. _Holy schmow that was a lot at once_.

* * *

 

We finish our dinner about an hour and a half later, idle conversation taking up most of our time. We mostly talk about my travels outside of Ooo in the past few decades and she tells me of a few interesting diplomatic missions she has gone on, such as how she forced the Flame King to take his abandoned daughter back two years ago.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you commanded respect.” I say after another sip of my now white wine, “the flame king I know would have sent his guards after anyone who gave _him_ an order. Granted I’m pretty sure that was about four Flame Kings ago considering how often they keep killing each other.” I say with a hand wave.

Bonnibel giggles, “If you knew the king forty years ago, when you were last here, then that was probably more like three.”

“Ah, I was one off, what difference does it make” I laugh, downing my fifth glass of wine. “Besides, this Flame King is a real jerk, abandoning his daughter like that just because of some stupid prophecy. If I was there, I would extinguish him myself and let that baby take over. It’d be in better hands then than before.”

The princess laughs out loud, “Marceline I think you’re drunk.”

I wave my hand at her, “No, no I’m not drunk, I’ve only had five gla-” I hiccup and try to cover it up with a cough “glasses.” The princess just glares at me, “alright maybe I’m a little bit drunk, but not much. A couple centuries back, shortly after I first became the vampire queen, I drank my entire wine cellar in a single night.”

“A single night, but how many days?” the princess bounces the question back at me.

“You,” I wiggle a finger at her, “are one smart sentient piece of gum aren’t you?”

“Now I _know_ you are drunk. That was just weird.” She laughs. “I think we should head back home.”

I perk up “so we going to my place or yours?” I ask with a stupid smile.

“Well” the princess says, _I probably shouldn’t have said that,_ I think a bit too late, “We should probably drop you off first since you have to be home by sunrise, but then it would be a two hour walk from the grasslands back to the candy kingdom, so we should probably just drop me off first.”

_Oh good, she didn’t think about that too much._ “Too bad you can’t stay with me.” I say, _note to self, stop drinking around people if they don’t know you have a crush on them._

She laughs again, “What, do you miss your big ol’ teddy bear?” The joke snaps me partially out of my drunken stupor.

“You know what? We probably _should_ get going.” I stand up, knocking the table pretty hard with my legs. The suddenness of my actions obviously confuses Bonnie. I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out my wallet, Bonnibel reaches for her bag but I hold out a hand, “look Bonnie, you get your money from taxes, I’ve got almost a millennium’s worth of savings piled up. Let me handle this.” I pull out a hundred dollar bill and slap it onto the table. “Now come on, let’s get you home” I hold out my hand for her. She takes it and I lead her out from the curtain, through the door and back out of the restaurant. The place is almost empty except for us, the staff and a few stray parties still talking over empty dinner plates. Our host bows to us as we leave and I just know that we are going to make surprise appearances in some of their upcoming marketing campaigns.

“Alright, grab on tight.” I say to her, she responds by hopping onto my back and I kick off into the air once again. This time I head straight for the candy kingdom.

“Are you sure you’re alright to be flying around like this?” the princess yells unnecessarily loud in my ear.

“Yes, seriously Bonnie, I’m not that drunk. We vampires have very high tolerances to alcohol and most poisons, besides, I’m flying well over the tree line, it’s not like I’m going to hit anything.”

“I’m just asking because you’re a few degrees off course of both of our houses.” _Oh good grod_ I think as I correct myself towards the city in the center of the taffy trees. “There we go, you’re back on course.” She calls out.

“I can do without you telling me how to steer myself thank you very much.” I yell at her, “No one likes a back seat driver. Emphasis on the word back here.”

“I sure hope the Ice King doesn’t show up again tonight, he’s made this annoying habit of trying to snatch me out of bed recently. Normally he’s unsuccessful, but it is a problem regardless.” The candy girl randomly says to herself more than anyone else.

“Don’t worry princess, after what happened last time, the Ice King should be leaving you alone for quite a while. At least for as long as he remembers that I placed you under my protection. That should give you at least a year or so.” I reassure her.

“Oh good,” she sighs in relief, “thank you again for confronting him last time, you really saved my boomwhacker. Oh, we’re almost there, just drop me off on the stairs in front of the castle.”

“No problem princess.” I say as we approach the center of the city. Thinking back on what’s happened so far today I must say, this has been an all-around successful first date.

  



	7. Chapter 7

When I reach the stairs to the castle the princess jumps off of my back. “Thank you for today Marceline. I haven’t gone out like that in a long time. I normally spend all of my time in my lab or off on princess duties.” She shakes her head, “Peps is always on my back about me getting out of the castle, maybe he’ll stop worrying so much now.”

“Well you can’t really blame him for worrying, the kingdom needs its princess.”

“Couldn’t we say the same about your kingdom and its Queen?” she asks with a snippy tone.

“Look, bonnie, I’ve told you already that vampires don’t take much governing. Besides, they know better, I had to _earn_ my title. No one is going to challenge my rule.” I look at the sky to find that it’s well after midnight. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure that you will need your sleep, so I’m going to be heading back home.” I turn to fly back to the tree house, but I’m stopped when her hand grabs my wrist.

“Hold on, I have something to ask first.” I turn, and am surprised with what appears to be a look of concern on her face. “While you were off at your house earlier, I heard some things.” She must have seen my confused look as she clarifies, “I talked to Joshua the dog and his wife Margret. They… well… they were complaining about you Marceline. They said that you chased them out of a house that they were inspecting for their children.”

“Oh yeah, I remember them. The two dogs with a pup and a human boy, yeah I showed up while they were in my house and I had to tell them to get lost, what about it?”

“Well I had to tell them that you were here for diplomatic reasons, so that way I could get Joshua to not try to kill you, he really doesn’t like vampires.” She explained. “But they mentioned something, they said that you had told them you weren’t going to be staying in Ooo long.” She pierces me with a pleading look, “Is that true?”

“Ah,” I rub my neck and touch my feet back to the ground, “Well I _did_ tell them that didn’t I?” I look up to meet her sad eyes, “Well here’s the thing, I hadn’t planned on staying. When I came here I thought I would just stay for a few weeks after the funeral before heading back out. But I think I’ve decided to stay longer. I kinda like being here, I might push those weeks to a few years instead.”

She looks visibly relieved, “Wait, you’re going to stay for a few years instead of weeks? Isn’t that a bit much of a jump?”

I just point at myself, “Immortal, hello? The difference between a few weeks and a few years isn’t that big of a deal to someone like myself.” She nods as if she just remembered this. I think back to what Peppermint had told me before, “though, how long I’m going to stay really just depends.”

“Depends on what?” She asks, cocking her head at me.

I give her a weak, shy smile, “On you, Bonnibel.”

“On me? I don’t get it, what do I have to do with---” She freezes when I take hold of the sides of her face and my lips make contact with hers. I push my body in close to hers as I take in her strawberry scent and flavor. She is completely stiff with her hand still in the air in confusion, but she seems to melt in my hands (hopefully figuratively), her wide open eyes slowly close as she begins to soften into my embrace. I pull back, Bonnibel taking an audible, and possibly much needed breath when our lips part. Her half-lidded eyes slowly open again and her hand is still in the air as she speaks again, blinking the shock off of her face “Well,” she clears her throat quietly, “That actually answers more questions than I had even thought to ask.”

“I’m glad I could clear that up for you.” I retort, turning to stare at the ground.

“So, just to be absolutely certain here,” She continues as if I hadn’t said anything, “Tonight wasn’t _just_ a night on the town was it?” She continues awkwardly when I don’t respond, “This… this was a date?” All I can bring myself to do at this point is to simply nod. “Wow,” she runs her hand through her bangs, “I never even considered that this was possible. I….I think I’m going to need a bit to process this” her pink cheeks are now a bright, hot, red and I can hear her heartbeat from where I am standing.

“Yeah, you go do that,” I say softly as I turn away to leave, my own cheeks burning up right now, “I’m gonna just leave you alone now.” I fly off, stopping when I hear my name called.

“Marceline!” the candy princess shouts up at me, “Can you just come over tomorrow night when you get up? Just so we can talk?”

I wave at her and call back, “Sure, we’ll talk then.” I turn around and keep heading back, my mind racing about everything that just happened and the possible implications of it all.

* * *

 

It turns out that Bonnibel’s specification of “when I get up” was useless, I was up all day long. _Stupid, Stupid vampire! What were you thinking kissing her like that? That was way too sudden, and not just that, way too soon!_ I scold myself as I pace around the kitchen of the tree-house. _Look, first thing when you see her later, just apologize for kissing her. She did think you were drunk after all, she might decide it doesn’t matter. But wait, what if she doesn’t want to talk about that at all? What if she’s just wants to talk period? What if she tries to pretend it never happened? Alright, don’t bring it up first then, just go to her and act like the whole thing never happened._

I walk over to one of the windows and open the shutters slightly so I can check the time. I wince as my skin chars long enough for me to see that there’s a few hours left till sundown and then close the window back up. _Ok, best case scenario, she decides she doesn’t want a relationship with me but just wants to stay friends, I can live with that. Worst case, she gets mad about it and kicks me out of the candy kingdom._

_No, wait, she can’t do that. I’m royalty and I have close connections to her mother, she can’t just kick me out. Oh right, I forgot she has a habit of bossing other royals around in a way that makes them listen._ I groan as I slump down into a corner of the room, _ugh, I’m getting nowhere with this!_ I begrudgingly pull myself up, take a deep breath, and go to the fridge to grab an apple. I suck the color out of it as I continue to pace, slower this time. _Alright Marceline, you’re a grown woman, get it together. Just go to her and talk about whatever it is that needs to be talked about, just play the whole thing off as a big mistake and hope for the best._ I take a bite out of the white apple for comfort, long now having outgrown my need to actually eat but not my ability to do so.

I head over to the mirror, sighing as I see how my lack of sleep is apparent in my face and my frazzled hair. I focus on my reflection as my shape shifting powers take hold, my hair snaking out in random directions before each strand straightens itself behind me and falls back down neatly, a single tuft of hair hanging around the front of each of my pointed ears. Unfortunately, I cannot do anything to mend the tired look in my eyes. I do however, change into a more casual outfit of a gray shirt with a red sign in the middle of a lit cigarette with a line crossing through it and a pair of blue jeans.

After waiting a bit longer, I decide to head to the candy kingdom early. I grab my skeleton umbrella and head out the door, keeping myself as shielded from the sun as I possibly can.

* * *

 

I fly though the main entrance to the castle when I arrive, looking somewhat distractedly for Bonnie. The main hall is somewhat empty at this time of day, everyone must be in the dining hall right now finishing up dinner. I figure I would best avoid the servants, specifically peppermint butler, who has most undoubtedly heard about what happened last night. I swoop up the stairs go down the hall and duck into Bonnibel’s room, which is left with its door open. I flop down on the bed while I wait for her, I figure she wouldn’t mind since she’s let me sleep in it before.

Approximately half an hour passes before I’m woken by the clatter of dishes as the servants begin to clean up downstairs. Shortly after I hear a pair of footsteps ascending the stairs accompanied by Bonnibel and Queeny's muffled voices. I turn invisible while I wait for their words to come into focus.

“-else dear, remember, you've been through this before.” Queeny says.

“I know mother, but this just feels different. I don't want to make the wrong choice.”

“Bonnibel, Just treat it like one of your diplomatic missions. Just go in and feel the situation out so you can decide what you feel to be the best decision. Find out what it is that you want and act on it.”

“That's just it mother, I'm not quite sure I know what that is right now.”

“No one truly is, life can be confusing like that. But the key is to simply not regret your decisions because they are your own.”

“Alright, I'll try to take that into account.” Bonnibel said as they separated and Queeny walked into a separate room.

Bonnie walks into the room and looks right through my invisible form. She's wearing a slim pink sleeveless dress with a slightly raised collar and poofy shoulders. She walks to her desk and starts sorting through papers absentmindedly, obviously lost in thoughts unrelated to any of the papers in front of her. I float over to her silently and get ready to surprise her.

“Hi Marceline.” She calls out suddenly when I'm a few feet behind her.

“What?” I shout out in surprise when she turns around and stares right at my still invisible form. “how did you know I was there?” I ask finally dropping my spell.

“There was an impression on the top and side of my bed covers when I walked in here the exact size and shape of your butt and legs.” she smirks. _Clever girl_ I think to myself.

“Anyway, thanks for coming here so early, there's something I wanted to talk to you about.” she said, suddenly looking away from me and drumming her fingers on her desk.

“Yeah? What is it?” I ask, desperate to stop worrying about where this is going.

“Well, it's about last night.” _oh geez here it comes_ , she turns to face me and I swear I think she is blushing, “You said that you might possibly be leaving Ooo soon.”

I blink, not expecting this turn of the conversation. She curls a single finger around her mouth dragging her bottom lip down by the corner, her nose resting on a single knuckle. “I talked to Joshua the Dog and his wife Margret again after you left this morning. He talked about you quite a lot, mostly about how he wanted to destroy you for scaring his children, until I told him I knew you personally that is. He kept talking about how you kicked him out of his kid's future house that they had picked out. He was quite strong in his language about the situation too. ” she continued before I could interrupt. “I'm going to ignore the whole house business,” she said, raising her hand as if to stop my protest, “but he also told me that you said you weren't planning on staying in Ooo and that this was the main reason that he wasn't going to press the issue with you yourself.” she turned her head up at me with wide eyes, “So, I have to ask, are you completely set on leaving like this?”

“I told you Bonnie, I'm not entirely sure how long I'm going to be staying. I mean, I have made promises to some of my undead friends. Also, as you said last night, it's probably about time I started actually using my title for more than just getting good seats at a restaurant.” I pause, feeling like I'm missing something. “What brought this on anyway?” I ask, my feet touching the ground.

“Well, last night when we were out... I started thinking... I don't want you to go.” she pauses, her eyes darting away as she starts sifting through papers again. “I really like hanging out with you, you're one of the most fun people I've ever met. But at the same time...” she trails off, her words apparently failing her.

“At the same time what? What's wrong?” I ask, worried about what is going on. This isn't like her. She sighs and I reach out to grab her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

When I do this she suddenly turns around and grabs my hand at the halfway point.

The next thing I am aware of is the taste of strawberries.

It takes a moment before my eyes widen as I realize what is happening. I'm shocked, the pink girl that I was just worried about having upset with my actions last night.... is kissing me.

My mind blanks, all I can think of is her strawberry flavor on my lips and the feeling of her hand running through my hair. It feels as if my body, as well as all of the anxiety I had about this meeting today, is all melting into her embrace. It takes a moment for me to gain enough control over my body so my arms can move enough to wrap around her and pull her even closer to me.

The princess is the one to break contact. Slowly pulling her hand from my hair and taking a deep breath. “As I said,” she continues, her cheeks a bright shade of red, “I’ve been thinking, and I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay here... with me.”

I blink a couple time to get my bearings. “Hold on just a minute.” I stammer, “So you mean to tell me that after I showed you my hand last night, you actually _like me back?_ For real? You don't think I came on too strong or something?”

“Not at all.” she smiles, “I had to think about it some considering how little I ever consider romance in general, much less with another royal, or a woman for that matter.” she reaches up to stroke my face, my hand comes up to hold her own and conserve the warmth. “But I eventually realized that I like you a lot, and I don't want you to leave my side. I...” her blush deepens even more, if that's even possible,“I think I love you Marceline.”

“Oh Bonnibel,” I whisper, tears of joy filling my eyes, “thank you, you have no idea how much this means to me. I love you too.” my hand sinks into her soft gummy hair as I slowly pull her in to me and kiss her again. Her lips meet mine and we both sink into each others embrace. My eyes shut as I listen to the steady, but quickening, beat of her heart. Her strawberry scent and flavor overwhelms my senses and all I can think about is...

“-Oh.”

I stiffen at the sound of the all too familiar voice gasping in surprise behind us. I quickly pull away from Bonnibel, who is somewhat surprised by my reaction, and turn to face the voice.

Queeny is standing in the doorway in her night gown with a hand over her mouth in shock. I can feel my gray skin turning a bright red color that on anyone else I would think looked delicious.

“So this is what you were referring to earlier I take it?” Queeny asks Bonnibel.

“Oh, um” she clears her throat, “Yes mother.” she says, her face also brightening a few shades.

“Wait, what are you guys talking about? Referred to when?” I ask

The princess responds, “Well Marceline, earlier I had asked mother for advice on what to do about.... well...” she trails off not knowing how to say what she is thinking.

“She wasn't sure what to do about your advances,” Queeny finished for her, “I should have realized that something was up due to her refusing to tell me who this mysterious admirer was. Especially with it being so rare for her to not just turn any potential suitors down on the spot.”

“Given your attitude, I’m taking it that you don't approve.” I say, my eyes dropping down to my side.

Queeny sighs and leans against the door frame, “Marcy, you changed my diapers when I was a baby. And I just walked in on you kissing my daughter. How do you think I feel about this?” she shakes her head, “No, I just... well... I don't really know what to think about this. After all, it's not like I didn't expect you to get with some teenage boy at some point, you're immortal after all, it's too be expected. But when it's my child that you end up getting with... It just feels _weird_.”

She stands up and waves dismissively at the two of us. “Just leave me be for a bit, let me mull this over. I'll come up with an opinion as to whether or not I disapprove after I’ve had time to think about it.” She turns and walks away towards her room.

Me and Bonnibel turn and face each other, she speaks first. “Well that just got about ten thousand percent more awkward didn't it?”

I scoff, “Tell me about it, and I saw that coming too.” I shake my head of the thoughts, “You know what? Let's head over to my place. We can talk more there without having to worry about anyone else walking in.”

“All right.” She replies. “At the very least, we can stay away from mother for a bit that way.”

she climbs on my back and I kick off once more and soar out the window of her bedroom.

* * *

 

We arrive at the tree house shortly after. She steps off of me and looks at it for a bit. “You know, i've always known that this place was here, but I’ve always wondered why a place like this would be abandoned.”

“You say abandoned, I say temporarily vacant.” I chuckle as I open the door for her. “now if you will excuse me Princess, I have to use the bathroom, make yourself at home. The bedroom is up the ladder and down past the kitchen to the left.” I direct her.

“Ok Marcy, we'll talk in just a bit.” she says as she climbs up the ladder surprisingly quickly.

I head up to the bathroom and lock the door behind me. I was lying about needing to use it, I just needed to collect myself. After turning the tap on I splashed myself with some cold water and stared at the mirror to think. _Alright Marceline, things are looking up. You've dealt with some crappy relationships before but this one is different, I can feel it. There was no need to worry earlier, you actually pulled it off. Remember that, you have pulled this off._

My mental peptalk is interrupted when I hear a soft hiss coming from upstairs and Bonnibel screaming followed by a somewhat familiar voice shouting. “What are you doing here?” _I swear if this is going to be a trend with this relationship..._ my thoughts trail off as I rush out the door as fast as possible.


	8. Chapter 8

I immediately shroud myself with an invisibly spell as I rush through the living room.

Inside I see Bonnibel backing up into a wall as another woman slowly floats towards her. Her raven black hair flares out like a mass of agitated snakes as she reiterates, “What are you doing in the Vampire Queen's lair?”  
  
“I could ask you the same question!” I call out from behind her, keeping my voice level yet barely even attempting to conceal the venom. She turns around surprised as I drop my spell, her eyes widen when she sees me, my eyes glowing red and fangs fully extended. Her own fangs retract and her feet touch the ground.

“Oh, sorry, didn't know you were back. My Queen.” bows slightly, tacking on the honorific in an almost sarcastic tone.

“Yeah, well I AM back, so I will ask again, what are you doing in my lair? Oh, and before you answer,” I cut her off right as she opened her mouth, “keep in mind that not only are you trespassing, but you were just threatening my girlfriend.”

The other vampire's jaw drops slightly, her gaze switching between myself and Bonnibel. She points at both of us as she keeps looking at us, “Wait, you and her? You're a couple?” she suddenly laughs and smacks herself in the forehead, “Oh man I've glubbed this up haven't I?” she leans against the wall crossing her arms and then turns to me saying “By the way, you don't really expect me to answer that first question do you? I mean I know it's been around 50 years, and I was barely over a century when we last saw each other, but surely you recognize me? I'm honestly kinda offended that it's taken you this long.” she grumbles her last sentence, puffing her cheeks out as if she was pouting.

I take a second to glare at her, I steady my breathing and try to put my territorial instincts aside and remember where I know her from. Everything about her is familiar, her bright green eyes, her raven black hair that would look like my own if it wasn't for how it cut off slightly past her shoulders and seemed to constantly wiggle as if it had a mind of its own, not nearly as much as when she was acting aggressive, and her light brown skin that everyone could agree made her look more like her father...

the realization hit me like a ton of bricks to the face.

“Oh my Gob, Raphia?” I almost shouted in surprise, smacking my face with the palm of my hand.

Bonnibel looks at both of us, “Hold on, I'm confused, you two know each other?”

“Of course we do,” Raphia shoots back at her, “She is my mother after all.”

Her jaw drops, “Wait, what?” she almost yells in shock, “I thought you told me that the curse of vampirism would normally stop a woman's menstrual cycle?”

“Wow, you're already comfortable with discussing your cycle with her yet you couldn't bring yourself to tell her about me?” Raphia raises an eyebrow at me.

“It does, in normal women,” I stress before pointing at myself, “but I'm a halfbreed demon spawn, and not just any demon spawn, the daughter of Hunson Abadeer. My body is naturally resilient to a lot of things, so certain processes keep going even in undeath. It's just in a slower form, what was once a monthly cycle is now a yearly one. And since I know you're going to ask,” I turn and poke Raphia in the nose, much to her displeasure, “This little lady is a dhampir, not a full fledged vampire. Her father was mortal and she has most of the same abilities that come with vampirism, only weaker, and she can go out in the sun.”

“Wow, info dump much?” Raphia joked, smacking my hand away from her face. Her smirk quickly faded when she noticed Bonnibel pull out a notepad and pencil from some unknown portion of her dress and began taking notes on everything I had just told her.

All I could do was shrug at Raphia's look of bewilderment.

“So what are you doing here anyway?” I ask her.

“Ah, well about that,” she looked down, her hair wriggling as if it was trying to get away from a predator without alerting it. “I've been wandering around the past few years and I thought you were still gone on your trip, because friends of mine were saying that you weren't going to be coming back to Ooo for at least 50 years. So I figured since I had an estimate of about 10 years till you came back that... I was going to stay in your house for a while.” she shrunk as she finished her statement. “I actually was staying here a few days ago.”

That would explain the open windows.

“Seriously?” Raphia winced at my flat tone, “You seriously thought that you would just squat at my house?” I repeated shaking my head. I rubbed the top of her head and sighed, “Mommy's little hobo.” she blushed at that.

“I have to say Marcy, I never expected you to be the motherly type.” Bonnibel finally spoke, her notepad and pencil already gone into whatever unknown location that she kept them. “You always seemed to nervous for any of that.”

Raphia perked up at that, “Her, nervous?” she laughed, “For my fiftieth birthday she raised an army of skeletons and had them raid a bar in the candy kingdom while riding on wolves for me. She had to spend the next month playing there for free every night to pay off the damages.”

“Oh so that's why the local bars all have anti-skeleton insurance.” Bonnibel thought out loud. “And here I thought you were always the awkward girl who tries to act cool all the time.”

“I'm-”

“Oh she just gets like that when she's around someone she's fallen for.” Raphia cuts me off. “First she tries to avoid them, and then, once she has her thoughts together, she just turns on the awkward romance.” she nudges me jokingly, I retaliate with a light punch to her shoulder.

Bonnie thinks for a moment, “Oh... OH,” she exclaims, “So that means that... you realized you liked me while at my father's funeral? I know love at first sight is a common trope, but seriously? Could you be any more cliché?”

“I swear to Grod Raphia, if you just made my relationship weird with that statement, I will send you off to stay with dad.”

“Fine! Maybe I will stay with granddad, and I will tell him all about you two.” she sticks her forked tongue out at me. “you know how much he likes to meet his 'baby girl's' love interests.”

Bonnibel laughed at our exchange, “It's hard to believe that I'm the only teenager in the room.” I float across the room and sit on the bed next to where she is standing.

“It comes with age babe, you eventually end up coming full circle on the maturity scale.” I motion for her to sit down next to me.

“So, who is my future mother in law?” She asks, a slight note of sarcasm in her voice. The question causes Bonnibel's cheeks to redden.

“I-” She clears her throat, “I'm Bonnibel Bubblegum.” Raphia's eyes widen

“Bonnibel Bubblegum? Of the royal Bubblegum family in the candy kingdom? Mom, you're dating the candy princess?” her voice is filled with shock, as if she just met a celebrity. but her face shows an expression that is almost... concern?

I laugh a bit, drawing everyone's eyes. “Sorry, it's just that this is starting to get weird and I just noticed something. We left Bonnie's place because her Mom was making things awkward and now here we are in my house, confronted with my daughter who has started probing into our relationship and making things awkward as well. We just can't get away from family today can we?” I direct the question to the princess, much to her amusement.

Raphia raises her hands, “Hey if you want some alone time just say so and I'll leave. It's just...” she trails off and shakes her head, “Anyway, I'll leave you two to your date, but.... Mom, can I talk to you for a bit alone?”

Well this is odd. I purse my lips and look at the pink girl next to me, she motions with her head to tell me to see off my daughter. “Alright.” I say, getting up to follow her down the stairs.

Once we are at the door, and out of earshot of Bonnibel, Raphia turns to me. “Are you serious with her?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean your relationship, are you serious about it? Or is this a short-term thing?”

“Of course I am serious! Why would you even suggest that I wasn't?” I quietly scream at her, feeling quite offended.

“I'm sorry, it's just that... I've heard things about the Bubblegums, they are VERY serious about their position in politics.”

“Look if you're concerned that someone would object to us being together then you can just stuff it. The candy people aren't prejudiced and even her mother is only a bit creeped out by it since I babysat her and am dating her own child.”

“No it's not that, it's... ugh.” she groans suddenly, “How can you be blind enough to not see it?”

“See what?” my glare causes her to back away as if I'm about to strike her.

“She's not the type to favor romance in her life Mom. That and she's done some very questionable things...” she trails off, giving me an expecting glance, as if that was supposed to be enough to get me to react.

“Your point being? Need I remind you that I killed my predecessor to get power in our kingdom? We're not exactly in the position to question the methods of other royals.”

“No, it's....” she trails off again and shakes her head exasperatedly, “I just don't want to see you get into another situation like with Ash.”

I stiffen at that, she looks at me and her face suddenly shifts from concern to... fear. “Oh glob I'm-”

I cut her off, my eyes burning with searing flames, my teeth suddenly sharpening and fur beginning to sprout around my growing muzzle. “Don't you ever say that name again.” I stress as quietly as my distorted voice will allow. “And don't you dare compare Bonnibel to that psycho.”

Her hands fly up in defense as she backs up, her hair almost retracting as it pulls back and packs itself onto her head. “Look Mom, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.” she breaths a sigh of relief as I slowly shift back to my normal form. “Sorry, it's just... I worry about you sometimes alright? I don't want to see you get hurt.”

“Don't worry, I won't.” I almost spit at her. “I'll be just fine, young lady.”

She sighs once again, “Fine, if you think that everything will be alright, then by all means, keep doing what you're doing. It's your choice. Just come find me if you need me alright?” she opens the door and steps outside, “I'll probably be staying around the barbarian’s village for the next few years or so, maybe in the nightoshpere,” she shrugs, “depends really. I am going to be telling grand dad about you two though, he'll love to hear about it.”

“Alright, later.” I wave as she kicks off the ground and flies off to the west.

I sigh and close the door a bit harder than I should before heading back upstairs, making mental note to never ask Raphia for dating advice. Bonnie is still waiting for me on the bed where she was when I left, her face notably more concerned than before.

“So what was that all about?” she asked curiously. “I heard raised voices”

“It was nothing. She just doubts my ability to date another royal.” I reply, attempting to squash future questions on the matter. “She just left, said she's going to leave us alone for a bit.”

“Too bad, I would have liked to talk to her some more later.” she lies back in my bed, her hands joined behind her head. “But enough about our families. I do believe we came here to be alone, right?” she raised an eyebrow at me.

“Right, sorry about that Bonnibel,” I say as I lay down beside her and stretch one arm across her body. She shifts to face me, “Family business always leaves me in a funk, there's a reason I hardly ever go to my dad's place.”

She places one finger on my lips, “And one day I would love to hear all about that, but not right now. Right now I just want to sit here with you and talk about us.”

A smile crosses my lips at that, “Well I guess I will start first, since you just found out when I started falling for you, how about you tell me your story?”

Her eyes dart to the side, or would it be up in this instance? “Well, I knew I liked you a lot almost immediately after we started talking. You sounded so smart when we were talking in the woods about my failed experiment, and when I got to talk to you more at the funeral and banquet, you were just so... fascinating. But after you asked me out, I just felt like I wasn't interested in talking to you purely for science, but rather that I just wanted to hang out. So I guess I always had a thing for you.” she blushed a bit, “But when you started calling me by my name while we were out, I... I started feeling something when you said it. I felt a bit... warm inside, and believe me I noticed the reaction I had, I just didn't quite know what to make of it. So I guess you could say that I realized I loved you from the first time I heard you say my name.” she smiled, holding eye contact despite her blush.

“And you called me cliché, you're way too cheesy to be making such calls.” she giggled a little at that. I stared at her for a second, taking in every last detail of her face. From her black eyes, her pale pink skin, her slightly darker pink lips and her slightly gooey hair that surprisingly didn't stick to much. I pulled her in close to me and laid my head to rest in the crook of her neck. Her arms wrapped around me as I took in her strawberry scent and let it relax my mind, which had been way too active with worry lately.

* * *

 

  
I open my eyes and saw a faint glow coming from around the shuttered windows, it was most likely early morning. I looked around and noticed that I was floating a few feet above the empty bed. “Huh, well that hasn't happened in a while.” I mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “figures though, I didn't get any sleep yesterday.” I flew to the kitchen and found Bonnibel rummaging through my fridge.

“You have like no breakfast-worthy food in here.” she says as I stifle a yawn. “there's nothing but fruit, and some of it is starting to go bad.” she stands scrunching her nose.

“Yeah, I need to go shopping soon.” I say, wrapping my arm around her body and resting my chin on her shoulder.

She turns her head and pecks her lips on my nose and closes the fridge, “I need to head home soon anyway, I can get something to eat then. So how did you sleep?”

“Amazing, since I had you next to me.” I smile, “Want me to drop you off at your place? I can go grab my sun gear.”

“That would be good I guess, we never did tell mother where we were going after all.”

“Alright, I'll be ready in just a bit.”

“No rush Marcy, we've got time.” she smiles, pulling me closer. Our lips connect, my arms wrap around her neck and a contented sigh escapes through my nose before I pull away from her.

“Did I ever tell you that strawberry was my favorite flavor of candy?” I breath in her ear. She blushes in response and turns to clear her throat.

“Um, no you didn't... but I should have guessed.” I laugh at how embarrassed she looks, which really only serves to make her annoyed at me.

“Anyway,” I continue, floating away from her, my arm stretching out as far as it can go before letting go of her shoulder, “I'll be right back.”

I look at myself when I get upstairs, I'm still in the same outfit as last night. I'm slightly disappointed to have not found myself in my pajamas when I woke up, but that's a different matter entirely. I figure that my current clothes will do for now and proceed to grab my skeleton umbrella and quickly head back to Bonnie. She's already heading down the ladder to the foyer when I show up and rush right past her through the hole in the wall. She yelps a bit at the sudden burst of wind before she notices me laughing beneath her.  
  
“That's not cool Marceline.” she huffs and continues down the ladder

“Oh it's very cool Bonnie.” I reply, reaching out to take her hand. We step outside, the sun stinging my skin slightly before I open my umbrella. The princess wraps her arms around my body, her hands joining in the center of my chest. “You ready?” I ask, more as a formality than anything. She nods and I kick my feet out from under myself and head out to the castle in the distance.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the song that shows up towards the end of the chapter is titled "Rock show" by Halestorm

“Hey!” I barely managed to gasp, “Just because I'm dead doesn't mean I enjoy being strangled!”

Bonnibel's grip on my throat then tightened and she jerked my head to the side again in response “I'm not strangling you Marceline, I'm _steering_ you. The front entrance to the castle is this way.” she said, punctuating her statement with a jab of one finger towards the entrance.

 “Yeah, but the window is closer. And it's more fun this way.”

 “It's uncivil!” she cried out, “Besides, you said we were going to talk to mother, which would be much easier if you took the front door.”

 “Ugh, fine, you spoil-sport.” I sighed, changing my course to take the more boring path.

 Once we made it past the giant arch that was the main entrance, I touched down to let Bonnibel off and walked through the main hall with her.

 “for a queen, you have quite the uncivil streak.” I heard the princess mutter under her breath.

 "and for a teenager, you have no sense of adventure.” I retorted, my forked tongue sticking out at her from the cover of my umbrella.

 A round, stripped head popped out from one of the doorways that met the main hall in response to our noise. Or was it just a body and there was no actual head? It was hard to tell due to the suit being on the same part of his body as his face.

 Candy people were confusing sometimes.

 “Ah, princess, there you are! Your mother has been looking all over for you.” Peppermint Butler practically sighed. He glanced behind himself and motioned for us to wait where we were. Hardly a minute passed before Queeny walked in the room wearing a regal purple dress with lace frills at the collar and her low cut sleeves.

 "Oh, Bonnibel, thank goodness. When Peppermint said that you weren't in your room this morning and the window was open, we assumed the worst. I was about to call Joshua and Margret to mount an expedition to the ice kingdom again.”

  _Is it just me, or does she look years older than she did yesterday?_ The thought crossed my mind suddenly. “Yeah, sorry about that Queeny,” I started before she could start scolding Bonnibel. “I took her over to my place for a bit, and we ended up running into Raphia. We ended up falling asleep in the end.”

 Queeny cocked an eyebrow at that, “Raphia is in the area? If you see her again, tell her to call me, I haven't seen her in forever. That girl has way too strong wanderlust for her own good.” she chuckled at that “Well what can I say, she _is_ your daughter after all.”

 “Yeah, speaking of, she did say she was going to be in the barbarian village for a bit. You should probably be able to catch her there if she hasn't left already.”

 The queen nodded, “I'll keep that in mind. Now more to the point, you two need to start leaving notes when you head out like this, I don't want to have another worry induced panic attack because I don't know what's going on.”

 Bonnibel and I both smiled sheepishly at that before my thoughts suddenly caught on something.

 “Wait, you're saying that like you expect a next time.” I said, with maybe just a touch of hope in my voice.

 The queen responded with a somehow sarcastic _look_ , and said, “Marceline, you're what? Nine hundred and ninety years old? I trust that you are mature enough to date my daughter without giving me cause to call the guards on you and ban you from the kingdom. So yes, I'm saying there's going to be a next time. I thought it over a bit and I think that you two would make a very cute couple, so I'm giving you my official blessing.”

 I turned and met Bonnibel's eyes, her entire face was lit up with joy, she was holding her hands together in front of her face as if holding them tight enough would keep her from jumping up and down. I would have laughed at her reaction, but I was fairly certain that I had a very similar look on my face too.

 “Oh my, that's wonderful news! Thank you mother!” the princess shouted. Her excitement was palpable, she even started clapping a bit while she said it. The sudden outburst was somewhat surprising. Was Bonnie that concerned that Queeny would be disapproving?

  _Dear gob she looks so_ _ young _ _when she acts like that._

 I couldn't stop myself from smiling at the sight, I wasn't sure I wanted to.

 Neither did Queeny it seemed, “You're welcome my dear.” she smiled back before turning to me, “Now Marceline, I'm sorry to say but I must steal my daughter from you for a bit.” she looked between us, suddenly all business. She had a way of looking so professional, yet kind in a way that I had always admired from the first time I had seen her take charge when she was about Bonnibel's age. “Something has come up in the breakfast kingdom. They've been messing with our trade agreements, raising tariffs, and restricting trade in both directions, their messenger simply gave me the run around, and I'm thinking that I'm going to need your 'special touch' for this one.”

 “Oh dear, could this be a lead in to them taking against us? Or could it be a domestic dispute that we are merely caught in the middle of? Well, first off, are we the only one's affected?” the princess changed tone almost instantly. Looking at her in her element, she was so much like her mother, she had that same look, but somehow.... slightly less kind and more authoritative. I knew from how I had seen her interact with her people at the banquet though that she had great love for her people, was this simply how she manged foreign matters? No wonder she had flame king on the ropes.

 “If you two don't mind,” I cut in, “I'm going to sit this one out. It could possible raise more problems if they catch wind of a separate monarch sitting in on a meeting on this subject. Could cause them to suspect that I was fueling decisions, and I’d rather not get my people caught in the middle of it.” Bonnibel looked slightly sad at that.

 “Ok, fine, but you can possibly meet up with me after we go meet with the Breakfast Queen and Princess?”

 I smiled, “Definitely, besides, I did say I wanted to get something to eat didn't I?”

* * *

  _Oh this is absolutely perfect._ I thought as I crossed the darkened streets of the breakfast kingdom. After getting food, I snagged a hotel room for the day while Bonnibel was out doing her diplomacy thing. I had really sat out for multiple reasons. The most obvious one being that I absolutely hated going on diplomatic meetings, they were one of the most boring events I could think of, only made worse when you could be sure that the person you were meeting with was actively planning a way for you to agree and go away. The other reason was that I didn't want the breakfast royals to think that we had an alliance forming, royalty was too quick to conclude that a relationship was political.

 After the sun set, I went out to check on the princess (while concealed of course) and found that the discussions were still ongoing. So I went out on the town. Interestingly enough, for a kingdom that was built around breakfast, they had a pretty active night life here. In fact, there was a concert going on later tonight with all sorts of sophisticated bands that only played music styled like the high class, classical songs from back before the mushroom war.

 In other words, they were having a rock-fest.

 And if I was right in how I gauged Bonnie’s meeting with the royals, they should be wrapping up any minute now.

  _Oh this is just perfect,_ I thought again, feeling almost giddy while waiting for the princess to meet me in the town square like we agreed before splitting up. I hadn't stopped flying circles around the syrup-fountain in almost fifteen minutes.

 I heard the giant toasted doors of the castle open up and almost immediately touched ground before turning. Sure enough, Bonnie was walking out of the castle right now.

 “Hey! How'd it go?” I asked as soon as she came into the square.

 “Well,” she paused and gave me a strange, almost smug, look, “we renegotiated our trade terms and I think that we will be very happy with the end result.”

 "so you ended up being able to work them huh?” I asked, though there was little doubt in it from the beginning.

 “We, of course, being the candy people, I mean.” she clarified, an almost evil grin spreading over her face.

 “Ooooh, you are good at this.”

 “You know it.” she punched my arm playfully, “Now, what are you planning? you look restless.” she asked, getting right to the point.

 Now it was my turn to smile evilly, “Babe, I’ve got the perfect plans for tonight.”

 “Oh?” she asked. I merely responding my pulling her after me, floating slightly as I headed to the local nightclubs.

 “Marcy,” she sighed, “you should know I’m not that much of a party girl. I _am_ royalty after all.”

 “Yeah, so am I babe.” I reminded her, “and besides, I think this place is upscale enough for you.” I paused briefly to glance around before spotting the place. It was a three story building with a large line outside it. A club called the palanquin, an upscale club that just so happened to be hosting a concert tonight. The bouncer stopped us right before I could walk us right through the door.

 “Back of the line ladies.” he growled, clearly annoyed at being the one working during a large event like this. I simply smiled as I motioned for Bonnibel to pull out her royal insignia while reaching into my pockets to grab my own.

 “That won't be necessary.” I smirked at him. He looked at our insignias and his eyes went wide moments later as he realized who we were. He started frantically glancing between the two of us, clearly uncertain as to what to do in this situation.

 “I-I'm so sorry your majesties.” he started to bow, stopping when I held out a hand, again, that look of confusion from him. He had clearly never interacted with any form of royalty before.

 “No need for that, we _do_ want to keep a somewhat low profile,” I said, quickly glancing back at the line behind us, nearly every eye of which was glaring angrily at us. “Just let us through please.”

 “Y-Yes, of course.” he stammered before unhooking the rope in front of the door. We walked through the door, leaving behind a crowd of people screaming at the bouncer, demanding to know why we didn't have to wait.

 I felt kinda sorry for that guy.

 The inside of the place was _fancy._ Two stories visible from the ground floor, the top floor, I knew, was reserved for VIP's. the center of the building was cleared out for a large stage set up on the floor, the sound system was evenly split between the first floor and the second floor, which was mainly just a balcony that stretched across the entire building, with more I was sure in the VIP rooms as well.

 I motioned for Bonnie to follow me and led her to the bar at the wall and ordered us some wines. “Any particular reason you brought me here?” Bonnie asked, raising her voice to be heard over the screeching of the guitar.

 “I figured that you could appreciate some classical music.” I responded before draining the color out of my glass. She scoffed and looked out at the band that was performing right now. Some hair band with way too much leather as part of their collective outfits. Though, the drummer had half of his hair on his head shaven, perhaps I could use that hairstyle later?

 “I've been to events like this before, the performers try to _imitate_ classical music, but they can never get it right. It's somewhat disappointing to be honest.” she took a sip of her wine, “It's part of what happens though when music from a lost era gets revived by the average Joe though, there's always going to be something lost in the transition.” she paused and grimaced a bit, “Besides, I've never really gotten the chance to really get into these events. It's typically considered improper for a person of my stature to participate in any way other than the sidelines.” she sighed.

 I tilted my head in a half-hearted glare, “You do remember that I outrank you right? And I’m famous _for_ participating in these events.”

 She laughed and took another sip, “Yeah, but you're queen of the vampires. It's different for you, you don't have the same... restrictions that some other royals here have. Like you said yourself before, vampires don't require much governing, so a 'proper' ruler isn't really needed.”

 Almost as soon as she said that, the room went silent for a second as the band finished its set. Right before the crowd started cheering and the band promoted their merchandise that was being sold on the other side of the club before stepping down.

 "I guess you have a point,” I said, “I really don't need to worry about looking my title most of the time, just when interacting with the various royals when it's needed. Plus being undead gives everyone else this impression that you're wild to begin with, so I guess I can get away with it. As for what you were saying about the music though,” I continued, changing the subject, “It's harder for me to notice since I've been around so long. I've seen a _lot_ of musical styles come and go after society started to rebuild. It's hard for someone to be able to recreate a sound that most people haven't heard in centuries.” I chuckled, “though, that's apparently been a problem from back before I was born too. What stories I heard of the days before the war, people were constantly arguing about music and some people tried to revive dead genres and almost always managed to screw it up somehow.” I swirled the remainder of my now-white wine before gulping it down.

 “You've never really mentioned your childhood before, it must have been fascinating, one thousand years ago.” the princess said, her arms folding back over the bar.

 “Not much to say from when I was a child that I’m willing to talk about.” I eyed her “you have to remember, I pretty much grew up in a dead wasteland. What little stories I have from back then typically aren't good ones. It wasn't till I got to be at least a hundred that things started looking up for me. And by that point I had already taken my predecessor’s title _and his head_.”

 the princess's eyes widened at that, “I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to...”

 “It's alright,” I assured her, no use getting her too worried about possibly upsetting me. “I'm pretty sure I’ve proven time and time again that I’m made of some tough stuff.” I said, thumping a fist against my chest.

 She laughed at that “Yeah, I think your daughter already cleared up that you just like to _act_ tough, you big dork.” I could feel my cheeks heating up, stupid Raphia. Why had she needed to say that to her?

 "Oh please,” I shook it off, “now,” I stood and held out a hand for her “would you care to dance?”

 She set her drink down, smiling. “I thought you'd never ask.”

* * *

 True to her word earlier, Bonnie was stiff on the dance floor. It was as if she was forcing herself to _not_ cut loose, no matter how obvious it was that she was into it.

 With how many things was that statement true? She seemed to take her image as a princess seriously, all things considered, so how much did she hold herself back?

 After a few songs, after I noticed her holding herself back like this, I decided it was probably best for her to get off the floor. So I pulled her aside to where the gift shop booth was set up.

 "So,” I started, avoiding mentioning how she was looking slightly embarrassed. “how's about you pick something out to remember this night by? My treat.” I asked, pointing back at the merchandise.

 “What? You mean a souvenir?” she asked, seeming more surprised that I offered than she looked confused.

 “Yeah! Go on pick something!”

 “Honestly I'd prefer taking a picture with you than any souvenir.” she looked down, slightly embarrassed again, yet somehow smug? The look honestly confused me.

 I shrugged it off “alright fine.” and pulled a small camera out of my pocket.

 “Wait, you actually had a camera _with you?_ Why?” she shouted the question over the music.

 I just smiled, “Rule number one of being an immortal babe. _Always_ keep a camera on you, you never know when you'll need it, and they come in handy more than you would think when you spend an eternity traveling.” I jokingly lectured her before turning to someone who was by the merchandise table with some of his friends and tapped him on the shoulder.

 “Excuse me, but would you mind taking our picture for us?” I asked him.

 He glanced back at his group before shrugging “Sure, why not?” I handed him the camera and quickly got beside bonnie and focused. While most people worried about not blinking when people took pictures of them, I had the displeasure of worrying about _turning invisible_ in pictures. Any time I wasn't paying attention, I seemed to react to pictures being taken of me and just disappearing right when the camera clicked.

 Bonnie for her part, saw me try and hold myself still and started laughing. “what on earth are you doing Marceline?”

 “I'll explain later,” I said through my teeth, to the guy I gave my camera to I said, “go ahead and take the picture please.”

 “You sure? She's still laughing.”

 “Just take it.”

 He shrugged again, “Alright now, and three, two, one and... there you go.” he said, handing the camera back to me. I glanced at the display of the picture and I was still visible and the princess had her hands up laughing at my posture.

 “That works, thanks.”

 “No problem... wait, didn't she say your name was...” he trailed off, forming the words as he spoke them.

  _oh gob no_

 “Oh my grosh, you are!” he turned back to his group for a second and practically shouted to them. “Guys! It's Marceline the Vampire Queen!” his friends, three of them by my count, suddenly turned to me wide eyed.

 “Sorry guys, I'm not doing autographs right now.” I said, holding my hands up in a placating gesture.

 One of them suddenly glanced to the stage and back to me.

  _Oh no, I think I can see where this is going._

 The camera guy held up his hands pleadingly, his normally eggy face turning red with embarrassment. “Umm, can I ask you something?”

  _oh geeze_

 “All of us have always been huge fans of yours and... it would mean the world to us...”

  _here it comes._

 “If you would play _with us_? We're supposed to go onstage here in a few minutes.” he finished.

 That gave me pause. These guys were a band themselves? I glanced back at bonnie, who just gave me an apologetic smile, likely thinking that these guys wouldn't have recognized me if she hadn't said my name around them. She might have been right, but I had my doubts. I returned the apologetic smile and turned back to the band, each one of them looked so.... hopeful.

  _Ah dang it, saying no is like kicking a puppy. A group of four sad puppies._

 I sighed, “Ah what the heck, sure.” Every single one of them suddenly lit up, the stockier french toast guy in the back of their group looked like he might even faint. “But just to be clear, I'm going to need an instrument, and I’m going to be singing.”

 The camera guy, it struck me that he was probably the lead singer, then said, “Hey, if you perform with us, we'll let you pick the song. We can follow _your_ lead.” there were scattered nods from the rest of the band.

 That gave me a bit of an idea, I glanced back at bonnie “Alright then, I'll see you in a bit hun. You good here?”

 “I'm fine. Don't worry, I can't wait to hear you guys.” she smiled.

 I grinned evilly before turning back to the band. “Alright guys, we should probably get backstage and get ready and do all the introductions.” I turned back to bonnie, “I hope to see you by the front row.” I said with a wink.

 We walked off towards the back of the stage, “alright, well to start off,” the camera guy said, “my name's Guy.”

* * *

 The next band stepped down from the stage in front of us, one of them giving us a thumbs up as they passed by.

 “Alright, that's our cue.” Guy said. We picked up our equipment, or at least the more mobile parts. The drumset and speakers were already put in place by stage hands. Guy grabbed a spare bass, Sierra the muffin girl grabbed her personalized bass, Brett the stocky french toast guy was on drums (I called it) and Geoff the bagel grabbed his guitar. I, grabbed their spare guitar, I really wished I had brought my ax. Guy led the group to the stage, while I lagged behind. I couldn't help but notice that after we got back stage, his normally egg-like skin had slowly started to turn... fleshy and had started to pale. He explained when I asked that he was a shapeshifter, and he wanted to keep this more or less secret from the fans, and let them just think that he was a really good makeup artist.

 The fact that he was trying to look like me was equal parts flattering and disturbing.

 Once the group set up on the stage, I waited for them for a bit. We had discussed that they would announce me as a “surprise guest” as a treat for all those who waited to see them, since they were the closing act.

 “.... ise guest, Marceline the Vampire Queen herself!”

 I smiled and walked out to greet the cheers.

 Not one to disappoint, Bonnibel was standing not too far from the center of the stage. Good, after all, she was about ninety percent the reason I agreed to do this to begin with. I'd noticed that she had problems cutting lose in a crowd, and with my centuries of experience with working a crowd...

 I was going to make _sure_ she enjoy herself.

 I took a deep breath and nodded at Brett to start the count off.

 Then, I started to play.

 “ _Little girl,”_

“ _you like it loud.”_

“ _Come alive in the middle of a crowd.”_

“ _You want to scream,”_

“ _you want to shout,”_

“ _get excited when the lights go down.”_

 “ _At the rock show”_

“ _You'll be right in the front row.”_

“ _Heart and Soul, they both know,”_

“ _it's where you gotta be.”_

 I could see Bonnie's eyes widen, her mouth dropped open in a general O shape, I could almost make out her saying “oh my glob.” dragging each word out. I smiled and kept on, the crowd was literally jumping now. It had been a while since I’d seen a crowd this lively, even at my other performances. Hopefully some of that would rub off on Bonnie.

 … “ _This goes out to anyone,”_

“ _who's heart beats like a kick drum.”_

“ _When a bitchin riff comes,”_

“ _knows the words to every line, every time.”_

“ _And you know you gotta go get some, get pumped.”_

“ _Find yourself and lose it.”_

 “ _At the rock show,”_

“ _I'm looking at the front row.”_

“ _Heart and soul, we both know,”_

“ _it's where we gotta be.”_

“ _Yeah at the rock show,”_

“ _we're reaching for the high notes.”_

“ _So what if we're crazy?”_

“ _You're coming with me,”_

“ _you're coming with me,”_

“ _you're coming with me.”_

“ _So what if it's crazy?”_

“ _It's where we gotta be.”_

“ _At the rock show.”_

 She hadn't broke eye contact with me throughout the entire second half of the song, and to her credit, Bonnie was now awkwardly following the crowd now. Almost like someone who had never learned how to dance in this situation. But she was trying, and that was all that mattered to me.

 Or it would be, but the look she was giving me, I couldn't place it. It was... intense. That was the only word I could put to it, yet it wasn't _angry_ or anything like that. It was probably because she had refused to really move from where she was, while also refusing to break eye contact with me. Like she was drinking everything in.

 like guy's transformation, it was a mixture of creepy and flattering.

 I wondered if this would continue for the rest of our set before we kicked off into the next song.

* * *

 I helped to carry Bonnie and some of the gifts that guy's band had given me (including a few albums, a t-shirt and a necklace) back to the castle, and she had been surprisingly quiet. If I didn't know better, I would think she had tired herself out. But she didn't seem tired, rather, she seemed... focused. That and maybe a little embarrassed? I had already tried to make small talk while flying back from the breakfast kingdom, but that had failed with one word, distracted responses.

 I was starting to wonder if I had somehow made her mad.

 remembering her earlier talk about using the front door, I headed through the courtyard to the castle gates before setting her down.

 “Well, I guess I'll see you later?” I said, rubbing my the back of my head.

 “Hold on Marceline, don't go yet.” the princess glanced back into the doorway, as if to check for anyone listening. “there's... something I want to show you.” she finished, blushing. She grabbed my hand and lead me through the castle, she stopped any time she saw a servant walking through a hall and either detoured, or pulled us to the side of a corner and waited for them to leave.

 It took a while before she had brought me up to her bedroom. “It's in here.” she said, gesturing.

 What on earth had bonnie so worked up? It could be an experiment she had done a while ago that she wanted to show me? But that wouldn't explain the secrecy, or the sudden change in demeanor. I was racking my brain as to what she wanted when I entered her room and found it pretty much empty and tidy. Just like it had been the other day.

 “what is it?” I asked, stopping a bit when I heard her lock the door behind her. “Bonnie, what's up? You're acting strange.”

 “That song.” she asked, still looking at the door, her hair blocking most of her body. “That song was specifically for me wasn't it?”

 it took me a second, “You mean the first one I sang tonight? Yeah, I mean, it's older than I am, but I was thinking of you when I picked it, yes.”

 She sighed and turned around, her face was very, very red. Redder than the juiciest of strawberries. “Do you have any idea how.... how....” she stopped, obviously flustered.

 “Seriously, bonnie, are you al...”

 “ _Do you have any idea how_ _hot_ _that was?”_ she practically yelled at me in a surprisingly hushed tone. I'd never even known someone could quietly scream like that.

 “Uh....” I blinked, dumbfounded. My brain had completely stopped at that. She had that intense gaze from earlier again. Only this time I think I could understand the force behind it that I wasn't used to seeing in her.

 Lust, it was a look of intense _lust_.

 “I don't know what to.... sorr...”

 “Stop apologizing, seriously.” she stopped and buried her head in her hands in embarrassment. “Just, don't apologize for it. It wasn't a _bad_ thing. It's just...”

 I approached her and pulled her into a hug. “It's fine babe, I was probably just working it too hard on stage, didn't realize how sensitive you were.”

 “It's not that.” she said, her face buried in my shoulder. “it's just...”she sighed “would you spend the night with me tonight?”

 “Sure, I’ll just have to be up in a few hours if I want to beat the sun home.”

 “No Marceline, that's not what I mean.” she whispered.

 “Oh?”

 “No, I mean I want you to _sleep with me_.” the words flew out of her mouth and she looked like she would crack from the embarrassment at any moment. Gosh she was cute like this...

  _wait did she just... is she...._

 “Oh.” I responded with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm currently about halfway or so through writing chapter 10 right now, which as you can tell is going to be nothing but smut. I've got plans already about what to do after the smut. not sure if i should do a time skip and wrap things up, or if i should fluff it out first... but that's for me to decide later.
> 
> For now, let me know what y'all think of this.


	10. Chapter 10

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked... It's too distasteful for me to...” the princess paused when I put my finger over her mouth.

“Hey,” I whispered, sliding my hand back to caress Bonnibel's face. “come here.” She stared at me wide-eyed before I leaned in and touched my lips to hers. She was frozen out of sheer shock, hardly even reacting to the contact aside from a slight jump, as if my lips brought an electric shock. I pulled away from her and watched her stunned expression. Her eyes were wide as she looked me over, as if searching for any indication that I was not one hundred percent into this. Her face was completely flushed, how much of that was embarrassment and how much was her apparent arousal? 

I leaned towards her, putting my lips to her ear “I'd be happy to do anything you want babe.” I whispered, pausing to nibble on her earlobe, she seemed to melt at the touch, as if that statement took an enormous weight off of her shoulders. “and besides, I like distasteful.” I tugged on her ear one more time, scraping it slightly with my fang and her head leaned to the side, the smallest of sighs escaping her lips. I pulled away from her and she suddenly looked back at me hungrily. 

I smirked and pulled her in for another kiss, and this time, she returned it. I could feel her hand grab my hair and pull me in closer, her lips tasted so strongly of strawberries that I felt an animalistic urge start to rise.

I hadn't lied to her when I told her that my favorite flavor was strawberry, and it wasn't just because I liked the fruit, I had fantasies involving them....

I pulled away, and saw how disappointed Bonnibel looked. I grinned and, in a flash, picked her up and pushed her onto the bed. She yelped in shock and blushed even deeper, again, I wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or something else. Though there was a hint of fear in her eyes, she was scared of how this might go.

“Don't worry Bonnie,” I breathed, planting a kiss on her neck between every breath, “I'll ease you into this, and if you want me to stop, then just say so and I will.” she bobbed her head slowly with a slightly annoyed look. I think the talking was starting to make her mad. So I cut the chatter, crawled over her, and slammed my lips against hers once again. Her arms wrapped around me and I prodded my forked tongue against her lips. She accepted the offer and parted her lips, allowing me to probe the depths of her gummy mouth. She sighed again, she was beginning to find her center. Her tongue began to fight with my own. Her hands wandered up and down my back, she was pulling my shirt up ever so slightly with each pass. 

“quit trying to be sneaky hun.” I whispered between breaths.

“huh? What do you mean?” she knew perfectly well what I was talking about, but she managed a somewhat innocent face through her red cheeks. She pulled in for another kiss.

I denied her and went for her ear instead, “If you want to see my tits, then all you had to do was ask.” it took a moment, but I could practically see sparks fly out her ears. She obviously didn't know how to respond to that so suddenly.

I simply snaked my forked tongue up her neck to her jawline before sitting up on top of her. I gripped her hands and placed them at the hem of my shirt. As dazed as she was, she took the hint and pulled up. The shirt came off easily and the princess dropped it off the side of the bed. I shook my hair out, a needless action, when I could just shapeshift my hair into any position I wanted, but I could tell that Bonnibel was captivated by it. Or possibly just by how my bare breasts moved when I did it, I wasn't quite sure.

It was probably that last option.

“Like what you see?” I asked, she only responded with a mute nod and a blank, intense stare. Her hands gripped my bare sides and I started grinding my hips against her leg. 

I stretched my arms over my head and she took the opportunity to slide her arms up my sides, her hands leaving goosebumps on my gray flesh. I growled softly when her hands started running back down my back. She clearly hadn't actually taken the hint. I grabbed her hands quickly and pulled them back up, bringing them to rest on my chest. 

She didn't need much instruction after that, she immediately went to work massaging my breasts. I sighed contently, grinding my hips even harder. My head fell back, and I could feel electricity dancing across my skin at the contact, the heat between my legs was growing. I gasped as she started tugging at my nipples, I was just about at my limit to how much I could take, I needed her. 

“Bonnibel,” I moaned, poking a finger at the center of her chest, “that dress has got to go.” 

Bonnibel blushed but didn't complain as I floated back, pulling her to a sitting position. I quickly undid the zipper on her back and she slid the dress off, while I occupied myself with kissing every inch of skin that she exposed, stopping at the hem of her purple lace bra while she slipped the dress past her legs.

I embraced her as tightly as I could manage as I traced my tongue across the edge of her ample, still covered breasts. I could feel her react to me, moaning softly, her hand running through my hair and pulling my head closer to her.

I slid my tongue under the hem of her bra, savoring the taste of her strawberry flesh, before biting down on the fabric with two fangs, pulling it down to expose a single breast. Bonnibel watched me intently as I immediately began to suckle on her purple nipple.

Huh, the rest of her body was strawberry flavored, but her nipples were grape... odd.

I pulled on her nipple, my tongue tracing circles around the hardened nub, and my teeth gently digging into her soft mounds. I smirked as I slowly traced my hand up her bare leg, barely tracing my fingers against her skin. I pulled away from her breast slightly as my other hand reached behind her and unhooked her bra and tossed it aside and out of the way. I went back to work, giving her other, freshly exposed breast some much needed loving while my wandering hand slid back down her thigh. Bonnie squeezed my head, moaning as my hand slowly traced back up her inner thigh, ending slightly higher with each lap. 

“Ah- Marceline, quit -ha- teasing me.” She gasped, clenching her teeth as I drew my tongue up her chest and neck, my hand trailing just beside her heat.

“I'm sorry your majesty, but I don't know what you're referring to.” I giggled, meeting her eyes while my finger traced the line where her panties met her thigh. I felt one of her hands leave my hair, running down my back before stopping at the hem of my jeans. She gripped feebly at my belt loops, trying and failing to move the waistline. I giggled again and gave her neck a quick nip with my fangs. 

She reacted to that as if she was shocked, her entire body jumping, her hand abandoning it's attempts at my waistline and instead grabbing a firm hold of my rear. “Marceline, I believe you know full well what I- AH!” she yelped as I suddenly slid my hand under her panties and ran a finger up her slit, brushing against the nub at her peak. 

“You are so cute, princess.” I whispered, pulling in for another kiss. She moaned into my mouth as I continued to tease her sex. Tracing my finger around her lips and only just barely missing her bulb with every pass of my fingers. When I pulled away, I whispered again, “I love you Bonnibel.” 

“I love you too Marceline.” She breathed, her hips grinding in vain in an attempt to make my fingers make contact with her clit. “Now please, just...” she trailed off.

“Just what?” I asked, sliding my finger to trace the outline of her folds. 

“Please don't make me say it.” she groaned, looking away from me for a second.

“Say what? Tell me.” I whispered, and she simply groaned defiantly in response. I leaned in close, parting her wet lips and prodding at her opening before insisting with a sly smile “I won't know what you want if you don't tell me.” 

She groaned again, only this time it came out as more of a growl. She turned to meet my eyes, one hand grabbing and squeezing my butt tightly, while the other hand grabbed hold of my hair and pulled me toward her. “Stop teasing me, and fuck me now.” she ordered me.

… oh my glob that was freaking hot. 

“O-ok then.” I smiled,“just one last question.” 

Bonnibel growled at me again, clearly not satisfied with my fingers just trailing up and down her wet slit, prodding her opening with each pass.

“No, no no. You see princess, you'll like this question. What I want to know is, how do you want me?”

She gave me a confused look, grinding her hips into my hand, succeeding slightly in inserting my fingers into her. But I continued to pull out just when she got what she wanted. 

“Remember, Bonnibel, I'm a shapeshifter. I can be anything you want me to be. Do you want me to have bigger tits? Or are you more of an ass gal? Or maybe we can go for more of the kinky stuff. I can grow tentacles if you want? Maybe I could be more of an animal for you? Or would you rather I grow a cock and plow you with that?”

Bonnie completely stopped at that, suddenly looking contemplative. “While that may be an interesting proposal, and I would love the chance to experiment with your powers. Right now, I just want you in your natural state.”

This time, it was my turn to blush. That was just about the sweetest thing that she could have said to me. I leaned in to kiss her again, my hand sliding out from under her panties to caress her face. “As you wish your majesty.” 

I began to slip down her body, kissing a trail down her neck and torso. I got to her breasts before Bonnibel cupped a hand under my chin and lifted me to meet her eyes again. “I said your natural state Marceline. Don't think that just because I didn't say anything doesn't mean that I didn't notice your bust grew a cup size right before our first date.”

I blinked a few times, she had noticed that even back then? I hadn't even told her I was interested in her at that point. On top of that, I had completely forgotten that I had done it and just let that change sit.

“Clever girl.” I muttered as my breasts shrunk, leaving her significantly more well endowed than me. 

The princess kissed me again, “That's more like it, I want to see what my girlfriend truly looks like before she goes down on me” she whispered, punctuating the statement with a wink. 

Taking that as my cue, I slid down her body, trailing my hands down her sides and leaving small kisses at every key point I passed until I reached the last piece of clothing that she wore. I planted one small kiss on the fabric that covered her sex, and quickly licked the wet spot eliciting another groan. My teeth dug into the hem of her panties and tugged them down past her hips and she helped me to pull them down her legs, tossing the soaked piece of cloth across the room. 

She leaned back, watching me as I lay down in front of her. I looked intently at her moist red lips mere inches from my face, the smell was an intoxicating blend of strawberries and a musky desire. I quickly nipped at her inner thigh, causing Bonnie to jump as if electrocuted. My tongue found its way up her thigh, stopping right where it met her hip.

“Marcy...” Bonnibel groaned, “What… did I say about -ah- teasing me?”

I responded by wrapping my arms behind her, grabbing a hold of her butt to pull myself closer to her sweet smelling core. I began to trace my tongue in a circle around her sex while she ground her hips into my face, trying to move my tongue closer to where she craved it. Before she could complain about the teasing again, I quickly flicked my tongue up the length of her slit. She shuddered, her moans silencing any complaints she had. I relished her strawberry flavored sex as I continued to work my tongue across her folds, teasing her lips apart and prodding at her entrance. 

Bonnibel let herself fall back, one hand finding a fistful of my hair as she tugged me closer to her. Her breaths were heavy with lust as she moaned my name. 

My serpentine tongue found Bonnie's nub and she lurched, her voice suddenly failing her. I drew my fingers down her waist, tracing the lines of her hip, and spread her moist lips again. Bonnie was constantly thrusting her hips up at me, her voice becoming a mixture of short breaths and high pitched groans.

I smirked, still working her clit, and plunged a couple fingers into her depths. Bonnie practically shrieked at the sudden intrusion, her hips spasming and legs attempting to crush my head. Both of her hands were on me, shoving my head between her legs with as much force as she could muster. 

Thank glob I don't need to breathe.  
Bonnie's fleshy walls clenched down around my fingers, her hips practically vibrating in midair. Her breaths had become short and her moans loud and constant. Thankfully I didn't care about anyone hearing us, I kinda wanted them to even, and Bonnie was a bit too… occupied to care. I plunged my fingers even deeper in her, working her depths and personally testing every nerve I could find.

Her legs wrapped around my head, “Marceline… I… I'm...” she cried out. I redoubled my efforts, preparing myself for what came next as I stroked my fingers against a bundle of nerves inside her and swirled my tongue around her bulb. Bonnie screamed as she rode out her orgasm, every muscle in her body seizing up. I refused to let up, even as her hands tore into my scalp, I continued to plumb her depths while her walls spasmed around my fingers. When her body finally relaxed, I slowly pulled my fingers out and backed away half a step, licking my fingers clean while she watched me with half lidded eyes.

I pulled up to kiss her, to let her taste her own strawberry juices on my lips. “Who would have thought that the princess of the candy kingdom could be so...” I grinned at her “distasteful.” 

That seemed to provoke a something in her. Her eyes flared with an animalistic nature, almost as if she had taken that as a challenge. She lurched up and grabbed me by the shoulders, suddenly flipping me over and tossing me onto the bed. 

She straddled me and growled, “I can be as distasteful as I want to here.” barely an inch from my face. “Now, I have one question… Why are you still wearing pants?” She breathed, tugging harshly at my waistband.

“Oh? You want me to strip for you?” I asked coyly, floating slightly off the bed to help her take them off. 

She grabbed my arms and pinned them above my head with one hand, pushing me back down to the bed. She growled at me again and yanked my clothes down and tossing them to the side. I could have sworn that I heard my panties tear slightly as they came down with my pants.

Good Grod I think I made her mad… good.

She rested her weight on me, holding me in place while she brushed her lips against my own. I whined slightly when she pulled away, surprising myself by how much I wanted more. She ignored my complaints and kissed a line down my jaw. She met my eye, a hard, hungry look on her face before she smiled and trailed a hand down my sides. 

I shivered at the contact, goosebumps following her fingers as they slid up and down my sides. She cupped a hand around the curve of my breast and kissed each of them. Her lips enveloped my nipple as her hand continued to slide down my stomach and traced a circle around my moist core. 

I began to grind my hips into her hand, electricity running all throughout my body as I felt her fingers pry apart my lips. Bonnibel gave me a fiendish smile and without warning, two of her fingers plunged into me

When I went into this, I had planned to be the one in control. To be the one guiding her through an act that she admittedly had no personal experience with… Yet here I was, with a pink princess on top of me with two… no, three fingers inside me. I was melting into her touch, I was in absolute ecstasy, every nerve in my body singing along with the feeling of her touch. I was completely helpless against her, though we both knew that I was more than capable of turning the tables myself at anytime. Even though my pride and my original plan said that I would be in control… I was letting her ravage me, and we both knew it.

My body was on fire, the princess was still denying me the ability to move, one hand weighing down on my arms while she stroked my insides. Her breasts bounced in front of my face, just out of reach of my mouth, with every thrust. The heat inside me kept building as I screamed her name. She watched me with hungry eyes, taking me in while I squirmed in her hands. I wanted more, I didn't want her to ever let me go, I wanted to be with her for as long as possible. 

“Bonnie!” I called out, breathless in the wake of my approaching climax, “I-”

She silenced me by immediately digging her teeth into my neck. Into my vampire bite scars.

I came the instant her teeth made contact with me. I supposed it went without saying that as a vampire I would be extra sensitive to sensual biting, but this… she was clamping down as hard as she could, sending every single part of my body into overdrive. My body seized up, I was paralyzed with the heat of my orgasm. She continued slamming her fingers into me, her teeth never letting go of my neck, while I twitched, mute, in her arms. 

I had no idea how long it took me before I started to come down from my orgasm. I almost blacked out in her arms. Dear grod I hadn't cum that hard in centuries. Bonnibel let go of me as I rested myself back down on the bed. In my orgasm I had started to float about a foot off of it.

“Oh my Glob, Bonnibel I love you so much.” I said, my body feeling like jelly. 

The princess smiled and kissed my forehead, “I love you too Marceline.” she set down next to me, cuddling her face into my chest, leaving me very aware of where my nipple was right beside her bright pink lips. She seemed to comptemplate something before saying, “And please don't mention to anyone how I acted just now, I know you're probably not that crass, but I don't think I could deal with the embarassment.”

I chuckled, “No need to worry about that BonBon, with the noise the both of us were just making, I'm fairly sure that the entire castle knows.” I could see her blush and bury her head into my breast at that. I chuckled again, Glob I love this girl. I would give anything to spend the rest of one of our lives together. I though, before the exhaustion of the past day washed over the two of us and we both drifted to sleep.


End file.
